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IHSPIRATJi^;  CANON,  AND  IBTERPBETATIOH 
AND  ILLUSTRATED. 


BY  BRADFORD    K.  PEIRCE,  D.D. 


"  Open  thou  mine  eyes, 
That  1  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law.1* 

u  Qui  hseret  in  litera  haeret  in  cortice." 


YORK: 
PHILLIPS     &     HUNT, 

CINCINNATI: 
HITCHCOCK     &     WALDEN. 


! 


\\ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1868,  by 
OAKLTON    &    PORTER, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 
9/06  2. 


PREFACE. 


writer  of  this  volume  has  sought  to  place  in 
the  hands  of  young  students,  and  interpreters  of 
the  Bible  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  original 
tongues  in  which  the  Holy  Scriptures  were  written, 
or  favored  with  an  easy  access  to  the  treasures  of 
sacred  criticism  which  are  constantly  accumulating, 
such  evidences  of  the  authenticity,  genuineness,  and 
general  purity  of  the  English  version  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  arising  out  of  its  history  and  the 
searching  examinations  to  which  it  has  been  submitted, 
that  they  may  open  it  with  confidence  to  discover  in 
its  revelations  the  mind  of  the  Spirit.  He  has  sought, 
also,  to  set  forth  and  illustrate  the  nature  of  its 
inspiration,  the  most  obvious  preliminary  studies  and 
preparations  for  a  safe  interpretation  of  its  contents, 
and  the  most  important  rules  for  the  guidance  of  the 
interpreter  in  his  work.  The  writer  has  not  proposed 
fully  to  enter  upon  the  argument  on  which  rests  the 
confirmed  judgment  of  evangelical  Christians  upon 


4  PREFACE. 

these  topics,  but  to  indicate  and  illustrate  the  various 
steps  in  it,  so  that  the  Bible  student  will  be  enabled 
to  have  a  clear  comprehension  of  its  nature  and  force ; 
and,  at  his  leisure,  to  turn  to  the  abundant  authorities 
crowding  our  Christian  literature  for  an  exhaustive 
examination  of  these  questions. 

The  author  has  sought  constantly  to  keep  in  view 
the  great  -class  of  teachers  just  now  awakened  to 
earnest  inquiry  as  to  the  means  of  meeting  the  serious 
requisitions  made  upon  them  as  interpreters  of  the 
word  of  God  to  the  children  of  our  land,  and  to 
prepare  his  volume  in  such  a  way  as  best  to  aid  them 
in  their  work. 

He  has  availed  himself  of  such  sources  of  informa- 
tion as  he  could  secure  in  the  various  branches  of 
biblical  criticism  involved  in  his  work,  and  has  ren- 
dered credit  to  them  in  the  body  of  the  volume. 
Special  aid  has  been  derived  from  the  Hermeneutical 
Manual  of  Dr.  Fairbairn,  and  from  the  admirable 
works  of  the  same  author  upon  Prophecy  and  Typol- 
ogy. Valuable  suggestions  have  been  gleaned  from 
Alford's  Prolegomena  to  his  Greek  Testament,  and 
his  interesting  work  under  the  title  of  How  to  Study 
the  New  Testament;  from  ISTast's  General  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Gospels ;  from  Prof.  Murphy's  Introduction 
to  his  Commentary  upon  Genesis ;  from  Schaff 'a 
History  of  the  Christian  Church;  from  Westcott's 


PKEFACE.  5 

invaluable  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  his  History  of  the  Canon  ;  from 
Home;  from  Davidson;  from  Cowper's  Apocryphal 
Gospels;  and  from  the  Boyle  Lectures  for  1866  on 
Christ  and  Christendom  by  Plumptre.  Rev.  David 
Dobie  has  written  a  strong,  original,  and  sprightly 
work  upon  interpretation,  entitled  "A  Key  to  the 
Bible ;"  but  its  rules  of  interpretation  are  unneces- 
sarily multiplied,  and  nearly  all  of  them  singularly 
tend  to  elaborate  from  Scripture  one  modern  system 
of  theology.  Its  illustrations  have  been  of  great 
service  to  the  writer.  Prof.  M'Lelland's  work  upon 
the  Canon  and  Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  has 
been  laid  under  contribution  for  the  same  purpose ; 
as  also  Gaussen  upon  the  Canon.  A  scientific  and 
comprehensive  work  upon  the  Hermeneutics  of  the 
New  Testament  by  a  Dutch  clergyman,  Dr.  Doedes, 
has  been  consulted  with  profit ;  and  a  late  English 
work  by  J.  Radford  Thomson  upon  Symbols.  We 
owe,  and  are  happy  to  express,  special  obligation  to 
Dr.  Goulburn  for  his  rich  little  treatise  upon  the 
Devotional  Study  of  the  Bible.  Much  assistance  has 
been  rendered  by  the  Hand-Book  of  the  Bible  of 
Angus.  The  works  of  Stanley  and  Milman,  and  the 
various  Biblical  Encyclopaedias  and  Dictionaries,  have 
been  examined,  as  their  valuable  contents  have  offered 
aid  in  the  work. 


6  PREFACE. 

We  trust  that  our  labor,  which  has  from  first  to 
last  been  a  labor  of  love,  will  not  be  in  vain,  but  that 
our  little  volume  may  become  a  guide  to  many  young 
explorers  among  the  hidden  mines  and  treasures  of 
Holy  Scripture. 

B.  K.  PEIRCE. 
RIVERSIDE  PARSONAGE, 
RANDALL'S  ISLAND,  March,  1868. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

THE  BIBLE. 

God  revealed  by  Inspired  Men,  and  by  an  Inspired  Book  —  In 
Harmony  with  the  Creation  of  the  World — Light  first,  and  then  the 
Sun — Written  Scriptures  commence  with  Moses — Like  the  Sun  and 
Stars,  they  become  permanent  Sources  of  Eevelation  —  The  same 
Truth  is  illustrated  in  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  —  Inspired 
Men  first,  and  then  Inspired  Books  —  The  Holy  Spirit  closed  the 
Canon  —  Error  of  Edward  Irving  —  Folly  of  Spiritualists  —  The 
44  Inner  Light"  never  superior  to  the  Bible  —  Bible  only  Eule  of 
Faith  —  Necessity  for  an  infallible  Kule Page  13 

CHAPTER    H. 

INSPIRATION. 

God  the  Author,  Men  the  Writers,  of  the  Bible  —  Oldest  Volume 
in  the  World  —  Various  Authors  and  Styles  —  Teachings  of  all  Hai- 
monize  —  Writers  were  not  acquainted  with  the  Sciences  —  Used  a 
simple,  figurative,  and  poetic  Form  of  Expression  adapted  to  all 
Ages  —  They  claim  to  be  Inspired — Established  by  their  Veracity 
—  Human  Authorship  impossible  from  nature  of  Eevelations  —  Words 
not  necessarily  Inspired  —  Dr.  Schaff's  view  —  Verbal  Inspiration 
would  require  a  constant  Miracle — Varied  forms  of  Inspiration 
illustrated  —  Alford's  view  of  Inspiration  —  The  Scripture  view  of 
Inspiration  by  Prof.  Murphy 19 

CHAPTER  IIL 
THE  CANON:  ITS  GENUINENESS. 

Is  our  English  Bible  the  word  of  God  Eevealed? —  Original  Lan- 
guage of  the  Old  Testament  —  Apocrypha  —  Care  taken  by  the  Jews 
to  preserve  the  Purity  of  the  Scriptures  —  Philo  and  Josephus  — 


8  CONTENTS. 

Samaritan  Pentateuch  —  Spread  of  the  Greek  Language  over  Bible 
Lands  —  Jews  in  Egypt  —  The  Septuagint  —  This  Version  was  used 
by  Christ  —  The  Syriac  or  Peshito  Version  —  Italic  —  Origen  and  his 
Version  —  Jerome  —  The  Vulgate  —  Its  gradual  introduction  into 
the  Koman  Church  —  The  first  book  printed  —  Declared  infallible 
by  the  Council  of  Trent  —  Different  Editions  of  it  —  Various  Versions 
of  the  Scriptures  —  New  Testament  Canon  —  First  Oral  Communica- 
tions from  Inspired  Men  —  Many  Kecords  were  made,  all  but  the 
Four  Gospels  have  disappeared  —  Matthew  —  Characteristics  of  hia 
Gospel  —  Mark  —  His  Epistle  written  under  the  Sanction  of  Peter  — 
Evidently  the  Gospel  of  an  Eye-witness  —  Luke  writes  under  the 
direction  of  Paul  —  Eesident  of  Antioch  —  Sources  of  his  Gospel  — 
Whence  account  of  the  Nativity  derived  —  John  wrote  last  —  Call 
for  his  Gospel  in  the  false  views  of  Christ  prevalent  in  the  Churches 

—  A  marvelous  Book,  when  it  is  recollected  its  Human  Author  was 
a  Fisherman  —  Paul's  Epistles  —  Peter  affirms  them  to  be  Inspired  — 
Testimony  of  Papias  to  the  Gospels  —  Irenseus  —  Tertullian  —  Justin 
Martyr — The   8}  riac  Version  —  Origen  —  Parnphilius  —  Eusebius  — 
Constantine  the  Great  orders  fifty  Copies  of  the  Septuagint  to  be 
prepared  by  Eusebius  and  circulated  among  the  Churches  —  Some 
Books  of  the  New  Testament  for  a  while  held  in  suspense  —  Apocry- 
phal Books  of  the  New  Testament  —  Use  of  them  —  Character  of  them 

—  First  English  Version  by  Wiclif —  First  printed  Version  by  Tyn- 
dale  —  Sufferings  and  Martyrdom  of  Tyndale  —  Fate  of  his  Work  — 
Edition  by  John  Eogers  —  Coverdale's  Bible  —  Effect  of  circulating 
Bible  in  England — Froude's  opinion  of  Tyndale' a  Version  —  Douay 
Version  —  Martin  Luther  —  Influence  upon  Biblical  Criticism  —  Ger- 
man Version  —  The  Authorized  English  Version  —  Effect  of  Kevival 
of  Letters  upon   Biblical    Criticism  —  Fears  at  first  entertained — • 
Olshausen  —  Bengel  —  Fears   entirely  removed — Nature   of  Varia- 
tions —  Prof.  Norton  upon  Purity  of  Text Page  31 

CHAPTER  IV. 

INTERPRETATION  I    GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS. 

Hermeneutics  —  Office  of  Biblical  Interpretation  —  Peculiarities 
of  the  Bible  rendering  its  interpretation  difficult  —  Why  was  it 
given  in  this  Form?  —  Analogy  with  Human  Life  —  Dr.  Schaff  on 
the  Character  of  the  Bible — Locke  on  things  difficult  to  be  under- 
stood —  Wonderful  things  in  Nature  hidden  from  our  sight  —  Diffi- 
culty and  Mystery  add  to  the  interest  of  Scripture  —  Exertion 
required  to  obtain  the  Treasures  of  Nature  —  Hidden  Truths  of 
Scripture  —  Bible  presents  Facts  and  Principles,  but  does  not  make 


CONTENTS.  9 

Moral  Applications  —  Distinction  between  Attention  and  Thought — • 
Failure  in  Sunday-schools  —  Devotional  Thought  —  The  whole  Bible 
should  be  studied  — Christ  in  the  whole  Bible  —  Revelation  Pro- 
gressive—  Dr.  Chalmers  upon  Progress  in  Moral  Consciousness  — 
Progress  in  the  New  Testament  —  Olshausen  upon  Unity  and  Prog- 
ress in  Scripture  —  Locke  on  reading  a  Book  of  Scripture  through 
at  a  sitting  —  Sacred  Writers  sometimes  state  their  object  —  Beauty 
and  Powsr  of  Scripture  lost  when  taken  from  its  connections  —  Each 
Gospel  has  a  Character  of  its  own  —  Scripture  is  not  a  Revelation  of 
Science — Dr.  Stowe  on  the  unscientific  Character  of  the  Bible  — 
Folly  of  interpreting  Genesis  as  a  Treatise  upon  Geology —  Common- 
sense  an  interpreter  of  the  Bible  —  True  Science  cannot  harm  the 
Bible  — The  Bible  is  not  a  "Body  of  Divinity  "  — Different  Truths 
are  taught  in  different  places  —  Goulburn's  illustration  of  this  from 
Nature  —  Error  of  Rationalists  and  Universalists  —  Interpreter  not 
Responsible  for  what  God  says  —  Dr.  Doedes  upon  this  irresponsi- 
bility— Error  of  early  Interpreters  —  Fanciful  Interpretations  — 
Reformation  changed  this  —  Illustrations  of  Ancient  Interpretation 
—  Historico-Grammatical  Interpretation Page  68 

CHAPTER  V. 

PRELIMINARY   STUDIES. 

Study  of  Ancient  Languages  —  Importance  of  a  Knowledge  of 
Biblical  Geography  —  Renan — Hibbard  and  Vincent  —  Effect  of 
Pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land— Dean  Stanley's  Account  of  the 
Vicinity  of  Hebron  —  "Works  upon  Bible  Geography  —  Value  in  the 
interpretation  of  Prophecy — The  Cities  of  Bashan  — Rev.  J.  L. 
Porter  in  Bashan  —  Present  appearance  of  the  Country  —  John  L. 
Stephens  in  Petra  —  Fulfillment  of  Prophecy  —  Most  interesting 
reading  for  the  Young  — Customs  and  Manners  of  the  East — Sir  S. 
W.  Baker  —  Song  of  Solomon  —  Parables  —  Sitting  at  Table  —  Break- 
ing of  Bread —  Symbols  —  The  Ceremonial  Law  —  Symbols  carried 
to  Extremes  —  Symbolical  Numbers  —  Natural  Symbols  —  Animal 
Symbols  —  Jerusalem  and  Babylon  —  Earthly  Royalty— The  Vin- 
tage a  ad  Harvest  — Harps,  Keys,  and  Book  — The  Bride  — Bat- 
tle of  Armageddon  —  Symbolical  Acts  —  Marriage  of  Prophet  to 
Prophetess  —  Symbols  of  Hosea  and  Ezekiel  —  Symbols  should 
be  interpreted  with  care  —  Must  be  in  sympathy  with  the  Sacred 
Writers  —  Hagenbach  on  inward  interest  —  Dr.  Paulus  —  Why 
BO  little  interest  in  the  Bible?  —  Man  needs  the  Holy  Spirit  — 
Illustrated  by  Sun  Dial— The  Spirit  acts  through  the  Human 
Mind 100 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

RULES    OF   INTERPRETATION. 

Eule  I  —  The  Obvious  Meaning  of  the  Words  the  True  One  — 
Bengel  on  holding  to  the  Text  —  Melanchthon  on  the  Sense  of 
Scripture  —  Luther's  view  —  Writers,  humble,  open,  and  sincere. 
Eeinark  1.  When  an  Impossibility  seems  to  be  asserted,  it  is  not  to 
be  taken  literally  —  Illustrations  of  this  —  The  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ  in  the  Sacrament  —  How  to  know  a  figurative  Expression  — 
"Buried  with  him  in  Baptism."  Eemark  2.  The  Meaning  must 
not  contradict  our  Moral  Sense  —  Figurative  Precepts  —  "  Many  made 
Sinners" — What  the  Apostle  teaches 'in  reference  to  this  —  "  The 
Wicked  made  for  the  Day  of  Evil"  —  Nothing  Contradictory  to  our 
Moral  Convictions.  Eemark  3.  Anything  Contradictory  to  Uni- 
versal Experience  must  be  Modified.  Eemark  4.  Poetry  and 
Prophecy  must  not  be  interpreted  literally.  Rule  II.  The  Mean- 
ing of  the  Words  must  be  taken  in  accordance  with  the  Usages 
of  Speech  at  the  time  they  were  Uttered  —  Changes  in  our  own 
Language  —  Bearing  our  own  and  others'  Burdens  —  The  Power  of 
Christ  resting  upon  one — Hebraisms  —  Things  said  to  be  done  when 
attempted — One  who  Occasions  an  Act  said  to  do  it  — Difficult 
things  said  to  be  Impossible  —  Passages  referring  Human  Acts  to 
God  —  Names  of  Parents  used  for  Descendants  —  Eelatives  called 
Brothers.  Eule  III.  By  the  Use  of  Parallel  Passages  the  Bible 
should  be  made  its  own  Expositor  —  Importance  of  Eeference  Bible 
— Bishop  Horsley  on  comparison  of  Scripture  with  Scripture  —  True 
meaning  of  Doctrines  thus  Discovered  —  Error  of  Jews  —  Must 
compare  like  Terms  —  Import  of  the  term  Baptize  —  How  to  use 
Parallel  Passages  —  Scripture  Terms  often  have  Different  Significa- 
tions—Gospel Writers  Supplement  each  other  — The  "Strait 
Gate"  —  Context  must  be  carefully  examined  —  The  Messianic 
Psalms  —  No  Doctrine  should  be  Built  up  on  Separate  Clauses  of 
Scripture  —  The  Prodigal  Son  and  the  Address  to  Nicodemus  — 
Dying  in  Adam,  Living  in  Christ  —  The  strongest  meaning  not 
always  the  correct  one  —  Perverted  Texts  —  Scripture  distinctly 
presents  both  Human  and  Divine  Nature  of  Christ.  Eule  IV.  All 
Scripture  must  be  interpreted  in  Harmony  with  the  Analogy  of 
Faith  —  All  apparent  discrepancies  must  be  harmonized  in  accord- 
ance with  this  Eule  —  False  foundation  of  Papal  Purgatory  —  Pas- 
sages referring  to  God  after  the  manner  of  Men  —  Why  God  is  thus 
epoken  of —  "  Upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church  "  —  "  Covering 
a  multitude  of  Sins"  —  Scripture  Difficulties  no  occasion  for  Dis- 


CONTENTS.  11 

couragement  —  Abundant  answers  to  all  Difficulties  —  Never  give 
an  unsatisfactory  Answer  — ^Dean  Alford  upon  Discrepancies  of  the 
New  Testament  —  Henry  Eogers  upon  the  same.  Kule  V.  Tho 
Spiritual  Meaning  is  to  be  earnestly  Sought  After — Bible  given  for  a 
Special  Purpose  —  God  teaches  some  Lesson  in  every  portion— 
Error  of  Ernesti  and  Grotius  —  Westcott  on  Spiritual  Interpretation 
—  The  view  of  Home Page  124 

CHAPTER  VH. 

INTERPRETATION   OF  PARABLE,  POETRY,  AND   PROPHECY. 

Principal  Parables  delivered  in  the  last  year  of  our  Lord's  Life  — 
Distinguishing  marks  of  his  Parables  —  "Reasons  for  using  them  — 
View  of  Tholuck  —  Aid  in  remembering  Discourses — Powerfully 
impressed  the  Truth  —  Used  to  vail  Truth,  because  it  had  been 
Neglected  —  Analogous  to  all  Christ's  Work  —  Mr.  Gladstone's  view 
of  the  Parables  —  Christ  supreme  in  them  —  First  Eule :  Must  fully 
Understand  the  Parable  in  all  its  parts  —  Second  Rule :  Discover 
from  the  context  the  Exact  Truth  to  be  Illustrated — Lisco  on  the 
Kernel  of  the  Parable  —  Lesson  of  the  Parables  in  the  -fifteenth  of 
Luke  —  Parable  of  the  Kich  Fool  —  Of  the  Householder  and  his 
Laborers  —  Third  Eule:  The  separate  parts  of  the  Parable  should 
not  be  considered  out  of  their  relation  to  the  Story  —  Apt  to  overdo 
in  Interpretation  —  Illustrated  from  Trench  —  Much  of  the  Bible 
Poetic  —  Easily  remembered  —  Sir  Patrick  Hume  —  Psalms  sung  in 
all  Times  —  They  are  to  be  interpreted  according  to  the  Laws  of 
Ehetoric — A  Doctrinal  Statement  not  to  be  built  up  on  Figurative 
Language — Illustrations  from  Psalms  —  Literal  rendering  of  some 
shown  to  be  Absurd  —  To  be  interpreted  in  sympathy  with  the  feel- 
ings of  the  Psalmist  —  Poetry  of  the  Imagination  and  of  the  Affec- 
tions —  The  Times  and  Circumstances  of  their  Composition  throw 
light  upon  their  Interpretation  —  Dr.  Townsend's  Arrangement  — 
Illustration  from  Stanley's  History  of  the  Jewish  Church  —  Parallel- 
ism of  the  Psalms,  Synonomous,  Antithetic,  Synthetic  —  The  Vin- 
dictive Psalms  not  expressions  of  Personal  Wrath— The  Songs  of 
the  Persecuted  of  all  Ages  —  Dr.  Park's  Illustration  from  the  late 
War  —  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes  are  Divine  Repositories  of  Moral 
Maxims  —  Solomon's  Song  —  Isaac  Taylor's  View  —  Prophecy 
abounds  in  the  Bible  —  Illustrative  Events  said  to  be  the  Fulfill- 
ment—  Rachel  weeping  —  Calling  out  of  Egypt  —  History  fulfilled 
Prophecy  —  Prophet  no  idea  of  Time  — Jesus  did  not  appeal  tc 
Figures  —  Prophecies  of  New  Testament  —  Prophecy  not  History — • 
Hour  of  Christ's  second  coming  not  Revealed  —  Irving' s  Error  — Dr, 


12  CONTENTS. 

Gumming  —  "What  the  Bible  teaches  in  reference  to  the  End  of  tho 
World  —  Prophecy  a  profitable  Study  —  A  grand  Epic  —  Dr.  Schaff's 
View Page  167 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    BIBLE   IN   THE   WORLD'S    LITERATURE. 

Never  before  so  widely  Circulated  —  Bitter  attack  made  upon  it  — 
Foes  under  the  garb  of  Friends  —  Object  of  Attack,  Christ  and  God's 
"Word  —  "We  have  no  occasion  for  anxiety  —  the  Bible  has  gained 
from  these  attacks  —  Its  literature  prodigious  —  Compared  with 
Shakspeare  —  The  latter  owes  much  to  the  Bible  —  Gray's  Elegy 
compared  with  the  Twenty-third  Psalm  —  Henry  Stephanus  on 
Psalms  —  John  von  Mueller  —  Alexander  von  Humboldt  —  Goethe  — 
Its  hold  upon  the  most  powerful  Minds  —  Kousseau  —  Coleridge — • 
Carlyle  —  Bishop  Butler — "Wilberforce  —  Webster  —  Sir  Francis  Ba- 
con —  Milton  —  Newton  —  Lord  Erskine  —  Guizot  —  Talleyrand  — 
No  other  Book  can  take  the  place  of  the  Bible  — Such  a  Book  cannot 
die  _  Walter  Scott's  Bible  Motto 207 


THE 


WORD  OF  GOD   OPENED. 


G 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE   BIBLE. 

OD  revealed  himself  and  his  will,  at  first,  to  man  by  in- 
spired men ;  "  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they     God  revealed 
were  moved  bv  the  Holy  Ghost." l    Afterward  he     nfen  and  by 

an      inspired 

caused  these  revelations  to  be  gathered  into  an  in-     book- 
spired  book  :  "All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God." a 
This  course  is  in  wonderful  harmony  with  the  di-     in   harmony 

with  the  cre- 

vine  economy  in  the  creation  of  the  world.  Light  Jodd.  °f  the 
was  fonned  upon  the  first  day ;  "in  the  beginning  .  .  .  God 
said,  Let  there  be  light."  3  This  light  was  diffused  through 
chaotic  nature,  emanating  from  no  local  or  material  fountains  : 
"  and  God  saw  the  light  that  it  was  good."  It  was  not  until 
the  fourth  day  that  these  floods  of  light  were  collected  into 
suns  and  fixed  stars,  and  became  ever  after  the  divinely- 
appointed  sources  of  illumination.  "  And  God  said,  Let  there 
be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day 
from  the  night  .  .  .  and  the  evening  and  tHe  morning  were 
the  f(  urth  day."  4 
*  2  Peter  1,  21.  2  2  Tim.  Ill,  16.  8  Gen.  i,  1, 3.  «  Gen.  i,  14-19. 


14  THE   WORD  OF  GOD    OPENED. 

For  twenty-five  hundred  years,  until  the  time  of  Moses, 
Jure"611  ccm? "  re%^ous  %^  was  diffused  and  faint,  kindled  by 
Soses.  T  direct  communications  of  God  to  favored  indi- 
viduals ;  but  in  his  day  God  began  to  cause  permanent  lights, 
in  the  form  of  written  Scriptures,  to  take  their  lasting  places 
in  the  moral  firmament,  to  shed  their  divine  beams  upon 
human  hearts,  and  to  "  divide  the  light  from  the  darkness." 
Like  the  sun  and  stars,  they  have  held  their  places  unmoved, 
These  lights  constantly  shedding  forth  their  light  over  the 

are      perma- 
nent, origin,  decay,  and  destruction  of  human  govern- 
ments and  the  proudest  works  of  man :   "  Heaven  and  earth 
shall  pass  away,"  but  these  "words"  of  divine  revelation 
"  shall  not  pass  away." 6 

After  the  same  analogy,  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testa- 
The  same  ment  were  given.  God  spake  first  by  inspired 

truth     .illus- 

Newed  Test!£     men  anc^  ^J  direct  communications.    .The  prom- 

ment     Scrip-      .  /»    ,1         /•  r,-r      *•*      i 

tures.  ise  oi  the   former  covenant  was,  "In  the  last 

days  (the  times  of  the  Messiah)  I  will  pour  out  of  my  Spirit 
upon  all  flesh,  and  your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall 
prophesy,  and  your  young  men  shall  see  visions,  and  your 
Prophecy  of  old  men  dream  dreams ;  and  on  my  servants  and 

the  Messiah's 

times.  on  my  handmaidens  I  will  pour  out  in  those 

days  of  my  Spirit,  and  they  shall  prophesy ;"  6  that  is,  they 
shall  declare  the  revelations  of  God — the  Gospel — under  the 
immediate  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost.7  This  promise 
was  literally  fulfilled.  At  first,  upon  all  that  believed, 

•  Matt  xxiv,  35.    *  •  Acts  ii,  17,  IS. 

"*  See  Introduction  to  Study  of  Holy  Scriptures,  by  Dr.  Goulburn,  Article  B, 
in  Appendix. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD   OPENED.  15 

miraculous   powers  of  speaking   or  specific  revelations  of 
truth  from  the  Holy  Ghost  were  bestowed  in- 

This      proph- 

discriminately,  as  upon  the  company  of  believers 
at  Pentecost,  and  afterward 8  upon  the  Roman  centurion  and 
the  company  collected  in  his  house;9  upon  the  disciples 
scattered  by  persecution  from  Jerusalem,10  and  apparently 
wherever  the  apostles  first  introduced  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel.  The  virgin  daughters  of  Philip  the  evangelist  were 
endowed  with  this  divine  gift,11  and  Priscilla  united  with 
her  husband  Aquila,  then  in  Athens,  driven  by  persecution 
from  Rome,  in  expounding  "the  way  of  God  more  perfectly" 
to  the  eloquent  Apollos,  a  Jew  of  Alexandria,  himself  mighty 
in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.12 

But  by  divine  inspiration  this  diffused  light  was  collected 
into  permanent  orbs.     God  no  longer  made  per-     collected  in  a 

permanent 

sonal  revelations  of  truth  to  individuals'  minds,     form, 
but  directed  his  chosen  instruments  to  embody,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,18  such  an  expression  of  his  truth 
as  he  desired  to  have  made  to  the  world.    He  closed  him- 
self  the  work  of  inspired  revelation  with  the  solemn  words, 

"If  any  man  shall  add  unto  these  things,  God    The  Holy  Spir- 
it closed  the 

shall  add  unto  him  the  plagues  that  are  written     canon, 
in  this  book ;  and  if  any  man  shall  take  away  from  the  words 
oi  the  book  of  this  prophecy,  God  shall  take  away  his  part 
out  of  the  book  of  life,  and  out  of  the  holy  city,  and  from 
the  things  which  are  written  in  this  book."  14 
In  overlooking  this  truth,  so  in  harmony  with  the  divine 

»  Acts  ii,  4 ;  1  v,  31.         •  Acts  x,  44-46.         1  °  Acts  xi,  19, 21.         J  *  Acts  xxi,  9, 
» a  Acts  xviii,  24-26.  » 8  John  xiv,  26.  » *  Kev.  xxii,  18, 19. 


16  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

processes  in  the  natural  world,   taught  in  the    Scriptures 

themselves,  and  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Church,  the 

eloquent  and  devoted  Edward  Irving,  and  his 

Error  of  e  Ed- 
ward Irving.      sincere  but  misguided   followers,   in   England, 

turned  the  worship  of  the  sanctuary  into  a  babel  of  unmean- 
ing sounds,  and  blasphemously  attributed  to  that  Spirit  who 
brought  order  out  of  chaos,  the  awful  and  insane  jargon  of 
tongues  which  drove  every  rational  worshiper  from  the  house 
of  God. 

The  same  condemnation  must  be  declared  against  those  in 
modern  times,  of  a  coarser  mold,  less  scholarly. 

Folljrof'Spir- 

and  far  less  pious,  (however  sincere  some  may  be, 
and  however  bewildered  by  strange  physical  phenomena,  the 
laws  of  which  are  not  clearly  understood,)  who  suppose  that 
they  have,  or  pretend  that  they  have,  communication  with 
the  world  of  spirits.  They  are  self-deceived,  or  their  minds 
are  perverted  by  the  devil.  God  does  not  reveal  his  truth  in 
this  way,  "  for  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of 
peace."16 

This  view  of  divine  truth  is  opposed  to  the  doctrine  oi 
The    "inner     those  who  hold  that  any  "inner  light"  witb 

light "      not 

Bible?  the  which  they  are  favored  can  take  the  place  of 
the  Bible  as  a  rule  of  life.  The  Holy  Spirit  cannot  deny 
himself;  and  having  spoken  harmoniously  through  a  long  line 
of  chosen  men,,  and  having  himself  closed  the  canon  of  in- 
spiration, he  will  not  contradict  this  revelation  in  the  hearts 
of  believers.  "  Thy  word,"  said  the  Psalmist  more  than 
twenty- eight  hundred  years  ago,  before  even  the  Old  Testa- 
« 1  Corinthians  xiv,  38. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  17 

ment  Scriptures  had  been  closed,  "  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet, 
and  a  light  unto  my  path." 16 

The  Bible,  not  as  explained  by  commentators,  or  held  by 
any  particular  branch  of  the  Church,  or  illus-  The  Bible  the 

alonet       rule 

trated    by  tradition,   or   confirmed   by  human     pLctice. au 
reason,  but  as  given  by  God  through  the  holy  men  that 
wrote  its  pages,  and  truthfully  interpreted  from  their  lips,  is 
our  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

Of  the  necessity  of  this  great  superhuman  orb  of  light, 
Dr.  Goulburn  remarks  that  it  arises  from  man's  "utter 
mental  darkness  as  to  his  destiny,  as  to  his  duties,  and 
as  to  his  dangers ;  above  all,  as  to  the  meth-  Necessity  for 

this  infallible 

od  in  which  he  must  be  saved.  A  revelation  ride. 
upon  these  points  must  be  made  to  him  by  God  if  his 
feet  are  to  be  set  upon  the  way  that  leadeth  unto  life.  That 
need  is  represented  by  imagining  men  in  a  state  of  natural 
darkness,  unrelieved  save  by  a  few  twinkling  stars.  Let  the 
faint  and  feeble  ray  of  these  stars  represent  all  the  aid  which 
man  can  get  from  what  is  proudly  called  the  moral  sense ; 
that  is,  his  innate  notions  of  right  and  wrong.  Can  you  see 
objects  by  starlight  in  their  true  colors?  Can  you  avoid 
pitfalls  and  marshes  and  stumbling-blocks  by  starlight  ? 
Can  you  dc  any  work  effectually  by  starlight  ?  or  is  it  not 
rather  true  that  we  must  work  while  we  have  sunlight ;  and 
that  when  the  night  cometh  no  man  can  work  ?  In  a  similar 
manner  we  see  not  good  and  evil  in  their  true  colors ;  we  are 
ignorant  of  the  tremendous  danger  of  sinful  courses,  ignorant 
of  the  traps  which  Satan  sets  in  our  way,  ignorant  of  how  to 

»«  Psalm  cxix,  105. 
2 


18  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

serve  God  properly,  and  as  he  would  be  served,  without 
instruction  from  above  on  these  and  similar  points.  We 
must  have  light,  and  this  light  is  called  revelation,  the' 
revelation  under  which  we  live  (or  Christian  revelation) 
being  the  clearest  and  best  ever  yet  vouchsafed  to  the 
world"  " 

17  Devotional  Study  of  the  Scriptures,  p.  184. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  19 


CHAPTER    II. 

INSPIEATION. 

rpHE  Bible  claims  God  as  its  author,  but  all  its  pages  were 
•*•  written  by  human  hands,  and  bear  the  sig-  God  the  nu- 

J  thor,  men  tl  e 

nificant  marks  of  the  different  writers.  Its  Bible!"8  °f  ^ 
various  books  were  written  at  different  periods,  often  with 
long  lapses  of  time  between  them.  Its  first  records,  the  five 
books  attributed  to  Moses,  and  called  from  their  number  in 
Greek  the  Pentateuch,  were  written  more  than  thirty-three 
hundred  years  ago — fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ ;  its 
last  book  is  supposed  to  have  been  completed  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  hundred.  It  was,  therefore,  during  the  long 
period  of  sixteen  hundred  years  that  the  work  of  revelation 
was  going  on. 

The  Bible  contains  the  oldest  writings  in  the  world.    The 
most  ancient  human  histories  now  in  existence,     Bible  the  old- 

est  volume  in 

those  of  Herodotus  and  Thucydides,  were  writ-     the  world, 
ten  a  thousand  years  after  the  times  of  Moses.     It  is  com- 
posed of  sixty-six  different  books,  and  was  written  by,  at 
least,  forty  different  authors.    It  is  generally  written  in  the 
language  of  common  life,  but  always  in  a  style     various    an- 

thors  and  dif- 

oi  commanding  simplicity  and  dignity.  Its  hu-  ferent  styles. 
man  authors  filled  almost  every  position  in  life  from  the 
humblest  to  the  most  exalted.  The  peculiarities  of  the 
writers,  their  cultivation  or  lack  of  it,  the  times  in  which 


20  THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

they  lived,  the  dialect  they  used,  the  station  they  filled,  theh 
gradual  advance  in  divine  illumination,  are  all  disclosed  in 
the  various  books  forming  the  completed  revelation  of  the 
will  of  God  to  man.  Some  of  the  books  are  historical,  some 
Character  of  of  them  summaries  of  religious  rites,  some  gen- 

the  different 

books.  ealogical,  others  dramatical  and  poetical,  and 

others  still  in  highly-wrought  and  sublime  figures  embody 
prophecies  stretching  through  all  ages.  The  wonderful  truth 
in  reference  to  them  all  is,  that,  when  thus  brought  together 
AH  harmoni-  from  so  many  sources,  from  so  many  ages,  in  so 

ous    in  their 

teachings.  many  styles,  and  composed  separately  without 
reference  to  their  final  collection  in  one  volume,  there  should 
be  found  throughout  them  all  an  absolute  harmony  in  their 
revelations  of  the  character  and  purposes  of  God,  of  the 
nature  and  necessities  of  man,  and  of  the  one  great,  divine 
plan  of  human  redemption.  Each  portion  seems  to  be  nat- 
urally related  to  the  others,  and  has  an  important  office  to 
perform  in  completing  the  perfect  and  harmonious  scheme. 

In  every  respect,  excepting  their  remarkable  knowledge  of 
writers  of  the     divine  truths,  the  Scripture  writers  were  like 

Bible  not  ac- 
quainted with        ,-•.  •    i  i  rrn          IT  -11  11 

science.  their  neighbors.    They  had  no  special  knowledge 

above  their  fellows  as  to  general  science  and  history.  They 
did  not  pronounce  their  revelations  in  a  scientific  form.  If 
this  had  not  been  the  case,  Dean  Milman1  remarks,  how 
utterly  unintelligible  would  their  words  have  been  to  their 
fellow-men!  Conceive  of  a  prophet,  or  psalmist,  or  an 
apostle,  endowed  with  premature  knowledge,  and  talking  of 
the  various  geological  periods  in  the  history  of  the  earth,  or 
1  History  of  Jews.  Preface  to  revised  edition .  Yol.  i,  pp.  17-19. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  21 

of  the  planetary  system  according  to  the  Newtonian  laws, 
instead  of  simply  declaring  "in  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  and  speaking  of  the  "  sun  going 
forth  as  a  bridegroom  to  run  his  course  !"  They  disclosed 
the  mighty  truths  of  God  in  the  common  and  ordinarily  pic- 
turesque and  poetic  language  of  the  days  in  which  they  lived. 
This  form,  requiring  now  careful  study  and  re-  Clothed  in  fig. 

J  urative     and 

n      , .          .  T         n     ..  .  poetic       Ian- 

flection  to  apprehend  its  exact  meaning,  was  guage. 
inseparable  from  their  daily  life,  and  the  only  common 
medium  for  the  conveyance  of  revelation  to  all  ages.  In  no 
other  form,  humanly  speaking,  would  they  have  struck  so 
deep  into  the  mind  and  heart  of  man,  or  clung  to  it  with 
such  inseverable  tenacity.  It  is  as  speaking  frequently  in 
the  noblest  poetry,  and  constantly  addressing  the  imagina- 
tive as  well  as  the  reasoning  faculty  of  man,  that  these 
Scriptures  have  survived  through  ages,  and  have  been  and 
are  still  imperishable  when  considered  only  as  the  work  of 
human  minds.  As  the  teachers  were  men  of  their  age  in  all 
but  religious  advancement,  so  their  books  were  the  books  of 
their  age.  They  were  the  oracles  of  God  in  their  divine 
instructions,  while  the  language  in  which  they  were  spoken 
was  human,  and  uttered  in  a  style  to  be  understood  by  the 
half-enlightened  people  for  whose  benefit  they  Revelation  is 

thus  adapted 

were  first  declared ;  and,  what  is  still  more  sig-     to  a11  aees. 
nificant  of  their  divine  origin,   revealing  clearly  the   same 
truths  in  an  impressive  manner  to  races  of  different  customs 
and  tongues  far  advanced  in  civilization,  and  familiar  \vith 
the  amazing  disclosures  of  modern  science. 
Although  speaking  in  their  own  natural  style,  and  giving 


22  THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED. 

utterance  often  to  their  own  personal  emotions,  or  simply 
The  writers  recording  events  passing  under  their  eyes,  the 

claim   to    be 

inspired.  writers  claim  for  themselves  and  affirm  of  each 

other  that  their  records  contain  the  words  of  God,  and  are 
uttered  under  his  inspiration. 

In  no  other  way  can  their  unity  and  harmony  be  accounted 
for.  "  If  the  Scriptures  are  not  the  word  of  God,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Murphy  in  the  introduction  to  his  comments  upon 
Claim  to  in-  Genesis,  "then  the  writers  of  these  Scriptures, 
tabifshed  by  who  directly  and .  indirectly  affirm  their  divine 

veracity     of 

the  writers.  origin  are  false  witnesses ;  and  if  they  have 
proved  unworthy  of  credit  in  this  fundamental  point,  they 
can  be  of  no  authority  on  other  equally  important  matters. 
But  neither  before  examination,  nor  after  an  examination  of 
eighteen  centuries,  have  we  the  slightest  reason  for  doubting 
the  veracity  of  these  men,  and  their  unanimous  evidence  is 
in  favor  of  the  divine  authorship  of  the  Bible.  All  that  we 
have  learned  of  the  contents  of  these  books  accords  with 
their  claim  to  be  the  word  of  God.  The  constant  harmony 
of  their  statements  when  fairly  interpreted  with  one  another, 
revelation  °f  w^h  general  history,  and  with  physical  and 
iTws.  nc  metaphysical  truth,  affords  an  incontestable 

proof  of  their  divine  origin.  The  statements  of  other  early 
writers  have  invariably  come  into  conflict  with  historical  or 
scientific  truth.  But  still  further,  these  books  communicate 
to  us  matters  concerning  God,  the  origin  and  the  future 
Human  au-  destiny  of  man,  which  are  of  vital  importance 

thorship    im- 
possible, in  themselves,  and  yet  are  absolutely  beyond  the 

reach  of  human  intuition,  observation,  or  deduction.    It  is 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD   OPENED.  23 

impossible,  therefore,  for  mere  human  beings,  apart  from 
divine  instruction  and  authority,  to  attest  these  things  to  us 
at  all.  Hence  these  books,  if  they  were  not  traceable  ulti- 
mately to  a  divine  author,  would  absolutely  fail  us  in  the 
very  points  that  are  essential  to  be  known,  namely,  the  origin 
of  our  being,  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  God,  and  the 
waj  to  eternal  happiness,  on  which  neither  science  nor  his- 
tory afford  us  any  light.  But  they  yield  a  clear,  definite,  and 
consistent  light  and  help,  meeting  the  very  ask-  They  meet  the 

great     wants 

ings  and  longings  of  our  souls  on  these  moment-  of  our  nature, 
ous  topics.  The  wonderful  way  in  which  they  convince  the 
reason,  probe  the  conscience,  and  apply  a  healing  balm  to 
the  wounded  spirit,  is  in  itself  an  independent  attestation  to 
their  divine  origin." 2 

The  Bible  is  not  a  specimen  of  the  style  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  a  writer ;  but  the  different  authors  expressed     The  Bible  not 

a  specimen  of 

in  their  own  language  and  by  their  own  illustra-  Gad's  style, 
tions  the  ideas  poured  into  their  minds  from  on  high.  The 
revelation  is  perfect  and  plenary,  for  it  is  divine;  but  the 
medium  is  imperfect  and  exposes  its  human  limitations  and 
weaknesses,  and  so  much  the  more  confirms  the  divine  origin 
of  the  truths  that  are  taught.  If  each  word,  as  Words  not 

necessarily 

some  teach,  was  inspired,  then  the  writers  were  inspired, 
simply  amanuenses,  and  every  book  of  Scripture,  like  the 
Ten  Commandments,  is  a  specimen  of  divine  and  not  human 
composition.  The  Son  of  man  was  no  less  a  perfect  man, 
hungering,  thirsting,  sleeping,  weeping,  because  he  was  the 
Son  of  God ;  and  the  Bible,  with  all  its  marks  of  human 
2  Commentary  on  Genesis.  By  James  8.  Murphy,  LL.D. 


24  THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

hands  and  human  weaknesses,  is  none  the  less  a  revelation  of 
the  word  and  will  of  God.  Says  Dr.  Schaff,  in  his  "  Ancient 
Christianity:"  "The  New  Testament  presents  in  its  way  the 
same  union  of  the  divine  and  human  natures  as  the  person  of 
Christ.  In  this  sense  also  the  '  word  is  made  flesh  and  dwells 


Dr.  Schaff  on     among  us-'     The  Bible  is   thoroughly  human 

likeness      of        .,.,,..,  x  .  _    » 

Scripture    to     (though  without  error)  in  contents  and  form,  in 

Christ's    per- 

the  mode  of  its  rise,  its  compilation,  its  preser- 
vation, and  transmission  ;  yet  at  the  same  time  thoroughly 
divine  both  in  its  thoughts  and  words,  in  its  origin,  vitality, 
energy,  and  effect,  and  beneath  the  human  servant-form  of 
the  letter  the  eye  of  faith  discerns  the  glory  of  the  only- 
begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth."  8 

Westcott  says,  in  his  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the 


Westeott  on  Testament:"  "The  human  powers  of  the 

divine  messenger  act  according  to  their  natural 
laws,  even  when  these  laws  are  supernaturally  strengthened. 
Man  is  not  converted  into  a  mere  machine  even  in  the  hand 
of  God.  ...  The  nature  of  man  is  not  neutralized  by  the 
divine  agency,  and  the  truth  of  God  is  not  impaired,  but 
exactly  expressed  in  one  of  its  several  aspects  to  the  indi- 
vidual mind." 

If  the  inspiration  were  verbal,  then  a  constant  miracle 
would  have  been  required  from  the  beginning  to 

Verbal   inspi- 

requiLre  a  con!     preserve  the  purity  of  the  text,  and  every  tran- 

stant  miracle.  ..  _    .          ,    .        .    ,  , 

scriber  and  translator  into  a  new  language  must 
necessarily  enjoy  the  same  inspiration  from  the  Holy  Spirit.4 

'History  of  the  Christian  Church,  voL  i,  p.  93. 

4  Dean  Milman  presents  this  objection  to  what  is  sometimes  called  mechani- 
cal or  verbal  inspiration.    "Is  it  the  Hebrew  or  the  Greek  Septuagint  of  which 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  25 


But  the  Holy  Spirit  has  simply  acted  through  men, 
divine  wisdom  revealing  its  own  truths,  while  they  have 
expressed  it  in  accordance  with  their  natural  constitution 
and  abilities.  Through  all  Scripture  Christ,  the  word  of 
God,  speaks  from  first  to  last,  and  all  Scripture  is  permanently 
fitted  for  our  instruction  ;  "  a  true  spiritual  meaning,  eternal 
and  absolute,  lies  beneath  historical,  ceremonial,  and  moral 
details."4 

The  manner  in  which  inspiration  is  bestowed,  like  every 
other  gift  of  God,  is  determined  by  the  neces-  Jflut^a*^ed 

t*  ,1  n  *  A'  •   j.  forms   of   in- 

sities  of  the  case.     "  At  one  time  we  may  picture     spiration. 
to  ourselves  the  lawgiver  recording  the  letter  of  the  divine 
law  which  he  had  received  directly  from   God  l  inscribed 

every  sentence,  phrase,  word,  syllable  is  thus  inspired.  Every  one  knows,  OP 
ought  to  know,  how  much  they  differ,  not  only  in  the  sense,  but  in  omissions 
and  additional  passages  found  in  one,  not  in  the  other.  It  will  be  said,  of 
course,  the  Hebrew.  But  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  when  their  cita- 
tions are  verbally  accurate,  usually  quote  the  Septuagint.  For  three  or  four 
centuries  till  the  time  of  Jerome,  the  Septuagint  was  the  Old  Testament  of  the 
Church.  Till  Jerome  no  one  of  the  Christian  fathers,  except  perhaps  Origen, 
knew  Hebrew.  All  this  time,  then,  the  Christian  world  was  without  the  true, 
genuine,  only-inspired  Scripture.  For  above  ten  centuries  more  the  Church 
was  dependent  on  the  fidelity  and  Hebrew  knowledge  of  Jerome  for  the  in- 
spired word  of  God.  Luther  must  have  been,  in  this  view,  a  greater  benefactor 
to  mankind  than  his  fondest  admirers  suppose  by  his  appeal  to  the  Hebrew 
original,  and  was  Luther  an  infallible  authority  for  every  word  and  syllable  ?"— 
Preface  to  History  of  the  Jews,  p.  43. 

"  What  matters  it,"  says  St.  Augustine  in  commenting  upon  the  passage,  "  Save, 
Lord,  we  perish,1'  the  words  and  the  time  of  their  utterance  being  variously 
reported  by  the  evangelists;  "What  matters  it  whether  the  disciples,  in  calling 
on  the  Lord,  really  used  one  or  another  of  these  expressions,  or  some  other 
differing  from  them  all,  but  still  giving  the  sense  that  they  were  perishing,  and 
called  on  him  to  save  them  ?"  —  How  to  Study  the  New  Testament^  Dean  Alford, 
p.  20. 

*Westcott,  p.444. 


26  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

upon  tables  of  stone-  or  spoken  'face  to  face.'  At  another 
we  may  watch  the  sacred  historian,  unconsciously  it  may  be, 
and  yet  freely,  seizing  on  those  facts  in  the  history  of  the 
past  which  were  the  turning-points  of  a  nation's  spiritual 
progress,  gathering  the  details  which  combine  to  give  the 
truest  picture  of  each  crisis,  and  grouping  all  according  to 
the  laws  of  a  marvelous  symmetry,  which  in  after-times 
might  symbolize  their  hidden  meaning.  Or  we  may  see  the 
prophet  gazing  intently  on  the  great  struggle  going  on 
around  him,  discerning  the  spirits  of  men  and  the  springs  of 
national  life,  till  the  relations  of  time  no  longer  exist  in  hi^ 
vision — till  all  strife  is  referred  to  the  final  conflict  of  good 
and  evil  foreshadowed  in  the  great  judgments  of  the  world, 
and  all  hope  is  centered  in  the  coming  of  the  Saviour  and  in 
the  certainty  of  his  future  triumph.  Another,  perhaps,  looks 
within  his  own  heart,  and  as  a  new  light  is  poured  over  its 
inmost  depths,  his  devotion  finds  expression  in  songs  of  per- 
sonal penitence  and  thanksgiving,  in  confession  of  sin  and 
declarations  of  righteousness,  which  go  far  to  reconcile  the 
mysterious  contradictions  of  our  nature.  To  another  is  given 
the  task  of  building  up  the  Church.  By  divine  instinct  he 
sees  in  scattered  congregations  types  of  the  great  forms  of 
society  in  coming  ages,  and  addresses  to  them,  not  systems 
of  doctrine,  but  doctrine  embodied  in  deed,  which  applies  to 
all  time,  because  it  expresses  eternal  truths,  and  yet  specially 
to  each  time,  because  it  is  connected  with  the  realities  of 
daily  life."  5 

Thus  all  the  different  Scripture  writings  taken  together 
•  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels,  Weetcott,  p.  3T. 


THE   WOBD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  27 

may  be  considered  one  harmonious  message  of  God  spokeu 
in  many  parts  and  many  manners,  Jyy  men  and  to  men,  the 
distinct  lessons  of  individual  ages  reaching  from  one  time  to 
all  time. 

This  same  idea  of  inspiration  is  expressed  by  Alford  in  the 
prolegomena  to  his  edition  of  the  Greek  Testa- 

Alford  on  in- 

ment.  He  says,  "  The  inspiration  of  the  sacred  8Piration- 
writers  I  believe  to  have  consisted  in  the  fullness  of  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  specially  raising  them  to,  and 
enabling  them  for,  their  work,  in  a  manner  which  distin- 
guishes them  from  all  other  writers  in  the  world,  and  their 
work  from  all  other  works.  The  men  were  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost;  the  books  are  the  pouring  out  of  that  fullness 
through  the  men,  the  conservation  of  the  treasure  in 
earthern  vessels.  The  treasure  is  ours  in  all  its  richness; 
but  it  is  ours  as  only  it  can  be  ours,  in  the  imperfections  of 
human  speech,  in  the  limitations  of  human  thought,  in  the 
variety  incident  at  first  to  individual  character,  and  then  to 
manifold  transcription  and  the  lapse  of  ages.  The  men 
were  inspired,  and  the  books  are  the  results  of  that  in- 
spiration.1' 6 

6  Prolegomena  to  Alford's  Greek  Testament,  Harper's  Edition,  p.  21.  With 
the  exception  of  the  clause  in  the  following  quotation,  which  is  italicized,  we 
could  not  find,  perhaps,  a  better  succinct  presentation  of  the  doctrine  of  inspira- 
tion than  is  given  by  Garbett  in  his  able  treatise,  written  chiefly  in  defense  of 
the  theory  of  verbal  inspiration.  The  author  does  not  adhere  to  his  definition 
in  the  body  of  his  work.  "  There  was  (in  writing  the  Holy  Scriptures)  a  con- 
currence of  the  act  of  God  with  the  act  of  man.  First,  he  endowed  the  man 
with  these  particular  gifts,  and  chose  him  to  be  his  instrument.  Secondly,  he 
guided  his  mind  in  the  selection  of  what  he  should  say,  and  of  the  revelation  of 
the  material  of  his  writing  where  such  a  revelation  was  made  necessary  through 
the  defect  of  human  knowledge,  Thirdly,  he  acted  in  and  on  the  intellect  and 


28  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Professor  Murphy,  in  his  introduction,  presents  the  view 
The  scripture     which   the   Scriptures   themselves  take  of  the 

view    of    in- 
spiration, nature  of  their  own  inspiration,  insisting,  like 

Gaussen,  upon  the  inspiration  of  the  book  rather  than  of  the 
writers.  The  Bible,  however,  just  as  clearly  affirms  that  the 
holy  men  who  wrote  it  were  "moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost" 
as  that  the  pages  they  inscribed  were  inspired.  "  The  Apostle 
Paul,"  says  Professor  Murphy,  "in  writing  to  Timothy,  a 
pastor  and  teacher  in  the  Church  of  God,  makes  use  of  the 
following  expressions  (literally  rendered)  concerning  Scrip- 
ture :  '  The  holy  Scripta,  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto 
salvation;'  and,  'Every  Scripture  given  by  inspiration  of  God 
and  profitable  for  doctrine.'  From  these  expressions  we 
gather  the  following  order  of  doctrine  concerning  the  origin 
and  character  of  the  Bible :  1.  It  is  given  by  inspiration  of 
God.  2.  It  is  first  holy ;  second,  able  to  make  wise  unto 
salvation ;  and  third,  profitable  for  doctrine  and  other  pur- 
poses of  edification.  In  these  elements  of  the  doctrine  of  in- 
spiration the  following  points  are  worthy  of  remark  :  1.  It  is 
a  writing,  not  a  writer,  of  which  the  character  is  here  given. 
The  thing  said  to  be  inspired  is  not  that  which  goes  into  the 
mind  of  the  author,  but  that  which  comes  out  of  his  mind 
by  means  of  his  pen.  It  is  not  the  material  on  which  he  is 

heart  of  the  writer  in  the  act  of  committing  the  words  to  writing ;  not  only 
bestowing  a  more  than  human  elevation,  but  securing  the  truthfulness  of  the 
thing  written,  and  molding  the  language  into  the  form  accordant  to  7iis  men 
will.  To  sum  up  the  whole,  verbal  inspiration  simply  amounts  to  this :  that 
while  the  words  of  Scripture  are  truly  and  characteristically  the  words  of  men, 
they  are  at  the  same  time  fully  and  concurrently  the  words  of  God." — GocPn 
Word  Written,  p.  358.  We  should  rather  say,  in  the  last  clause  of  the  closing 
sentence,  they  (the  words)  do  fully  and  concurrently  reveal  the  will  of  God. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  29 

to  exercise  his  mind,  but  the  result  of  that  mental  exercise 
which  is  here  characterized.  Hence,  it  has  received  all  the 
impress,  not  merely  of  man  in  general,  but  even  of  the  indi- 
vidual author  in  particular,  at  the  time  when  it  is  so  desig- 
nated. It  is  that  piece  of  composition  which  the  human 
author  has  put  into  a  written  form  which  is  described  as 
inspired.  2.  To  be  inspired  of  God,  is  to  be  communicated 
from  God,  who  is  a  Spirit,  to  the  mind  of  man.  The  mode 
of  communication  we  do  not  pretend  to  explain,  but  the 
possibility  of  such  communication  we  cannot  for  a  moment 
doubt.  The  immediate  author  of  a  human  book  may  not  be 
the  ultimate  author  of  a  single  sentiment  it  con-  J1/ "f^^ie 

,    .  -,-r  ,  .       T  /,     .    (,  authorship  of 

tains.  He  njay  have  received  every  fact  from  the  Bible. 
trustworthy  witnesses,  who  are,  after  all,  the  real  vouchers 
for  all  it  records ;  and  the  very  merit  of  the  immediate 
author  may  consist  in  judiciously  selecting  the  facts,  faith- 
fully adhering  to  his  authorities,  and  properly  arranging  his 
materials  for  the  desired  effect.  Analogous  to  this  is  the 
divine  authorship  of  the  sacred  volume.  By  the  inspiration 
of  the  Almighty  the  human  author  is  made  to  perceive  cer- 
tain things  divine  and  human,  to  select  such  as  are  to  be 
revealed,  and  to  record  these  with  fidelity  in  the  natural 
order,  and  to  the  proper  end.  The  result  is  a  writing  given 
by  inspiration  of  God,  with  all  the  peculiarities  of  man  and 
all  the  authority  of  God.  3.  Such  a  written  revelation  is 
'  holy.'  The  primary  holiness  of  a  writing  is  its  The  hol5nesg 
truth.  God's  part  in  it  secures  its  veracity  and 
credibility.  Even  man  often  tells  the  truth  where  he  is  a 
disinterested  witness ;  and  we  believe  not  only  his  sincerity 


30  THE   WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

but  Ms  competence.  God,  who  cannot  lie,  is  able  to  secure 
Ms  scribes  from  error,  intentional  or  unintentional.  The 
secondary  holiness  of  a  writing  appears  in  the  two  following 
particulars  :  4.  It  is  also  '  able  to  make  wise  unto  salvation.' 


Office  of  the  Tllis  refers  to  tlie  ^d  of  trutl1  contained  in  the 
book  of  God.  It  is  a  revelation  of  mercy,  of 
peace  on  earth,  and  good-will  to  man.  This,  at  the  same 
time,  imparts  an  unspeakable  interest  to  the  book,'  and  points 
out  the  occasion  warranting  the  divine  interference  for  its 
composition.  5.  It  is  also  '  profitable  for  doctrine.'  It  tends 
to  holiness.  It  is  moral  as  well  as  merciful  in  its  revelations. 
It  contains  truth,  mercy,  and  righteousness.  It  reflects,  there- 
fore, the  holiness  of  God.  It  is  in  all  respects^  worthy  of  its 
high  original."  7 

The  discussion  upon  tMs  vital  topic  may  be  closed  by 

Summar     of       say^nS   ^na^  ^Ms    Completed  book  of  holy  writ- 


discussion.  .  ,  /»  ..        ,  .,  T      , 

ings  has,  from  its  beginning  to  its  end,  been 
prepared  under  the  immediate  direction  and  inspiration  of 
the  divine  Spirit,  and  through  all  its  various  pages  God  does 
disclose  his  nature  and  perfections  to  our  race,  and  so  ex 
Mbits  Ms  purposes  of  mercy  to  mankind  that  whoever 
earnestly,  prayerfully,  and  with  a  penitent  heart,  searches 
them  will  be  made  by  them  "wise  unto  salvation." 

T  Commentary  on  Genesis,  by  J.  G.  Murphy,  LL.D.,  p.  12. 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED.  31 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  CANON:   ITS  GENUINENESS. 

HOW  natural  the  question,  as  we  open  our  Englisa  Bibles : 
"If  the  first  portions  of  this  yolume  were  ^^rEll8the 
written  more  than  twenty-three  hundred  years  as^reveiied? 
ago,  and  the  last  book  nearly  eighteen  hundred  years  since, 
how  strong  a  confidence  may  I  place  in  our  version,  that  in  it 
we  have,  with  great  exactness,  the  revelations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  they  were  inspired  and  recorded  by  the  holy  men 
who  received  them  ? " 

The  Old  Testament  was  nearly  all  of  it  written  in  Hebrew. 

The  portions  composed   during  and  after  the     original  lan- 
guage of  Old 
captivity  of  the  Jews  in  Babylon  were  written     Testament. 

in  a  dialect  very  similar,  and  called  after  the  nations  from 
whom  they  learned  it,  the  Chaldee. 

The  canon  of  the  Old  Testament — so  called  from  the  Greek 
word  icav&v,  a  cane,  a  measure,  a  perfect  rule — as  The  canon, 
containing  the  full  and  divine  measure  of  inspiration  and 
perfect  rule  of  faith '  and  life,  was  completed  about  four 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  Ezra  is  supposed  carefully  to 
have  gathered  together  the  sacred  books  written  before  his 
day  after  the  return  from  the  captivity.  His  own  record, 
and  that  of  Nehemiah,  were  afterward  added,  and  no  further 
addition  was  made. 

Certain  interesting  historical  books,  recounting  the  wars  of 


32  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

the  Jews  under  the  Maccabean  princes  between  the  closing 

of  the  canon  and  the  times  of  Christ,  stretching  over  a  period 

B.  C.  325  to  B.  C.  160,  together  with  certain  other 

Apocrypha. 

books  of  poetry,  proverbs,  personal  incidents,  and 
improbable  fables,  under  the  title  of  Apocrypha,  were  for- 
merly bound  up  in  the  volume  with  the  sacred  canon.  These 
Value  of  these  ^°°ks  are  only  of  value  for  the  light  they  throw 

upon  this  period  of  Jewish  history,  and  the 
evidence,  by  striking  contrast,  in  almost  every  respect,  which 
they  give  of  the  inspiration  of  the  other  Scriptures.  The 
Jews  never  accounted  them  to  be  a  part  of  the  holy  writings, 
HOW  they  and  it  was  left  to  the  Roman  Church,  at  the 

found  a  place 

in  the  Bible.  council  held  in  1546  in  Trent  in  Austna,  com- 
posed chiefly  of  Italian  cardinals  and  bishops,  called  together 
by  the  pope,  to  put  "  for  the  first  time  the  apocryphal  books 
in  the  rank  of  the  Scriptures  of  God." l 

There  is  evidence  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  themselves,  in 
Care  taken  of  their  constant  reference  to  the  law  of  God  as 

Jewish  ^Scrip- 
tures, contained  in  preceding  holy  writings,  the  public 

reading  of  them,  and  general  regard  for  them,  of  the  ex- 
traordinary care  taken  for  their  preservation,  and  for  the 
purity  of  their  transcription. 

The  books  of  the  law  were  placed  in  the  tabernacle  with 
the  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  were  kept  there  during  the  jour- 
neys in  the  wilderness,  and  afterward  in  the  Land  of  Promise.2 
To  the  same  sanctuary  were  the  various  historical,  poetical, 
and  prophetical  books  consigned.  On  the  erection  of  the 

1  The  Canon  of  Scripture,  by  Gaussen,  p.  464. 

3  Deut.  xxxi,  9,  26;  1  Sam.  x,  25;  2  Kings  xxii,  8;  Isa.  rariv,  16. 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.  33 

temple  Solomon  deposited  in  it  these  sacred  treasures,  and 
enriched  them  by  inspired  productions  from  his  own  pen. 
What  became  of  the  sacred  books  when  the  tem- 

Bible  in  Baby- 
pie  was  destroyed  we  are  not  informed,  but  in 

Babylon  Daniel  speaks  of  the  book  of  the  law  as  familiar  to 
him,  and  also  of  the  prophets.3 

Jewish  writers,   like   Philo.   the  Alexandrine  Jew,   bom 
thirty  years    before    Christ,    and   Josephus,   in 

Philo  and  Jo- 

Christ's  time,  unite  in  declaring  the  general  cor-     sephus- 
rectness  of  the  text  in  their  day ;  and  we  may  readily  believe, 
after  admitting  the  inspiration  of  the  volume,     Reason  to  ex- 

pect  its  pres- 

that  the  Providence  of  the  same  Divine  Spirit     ervation. 
that  supervised  its  records  and  gave  its  revelations  would 
secure  its  preservation. 

Additional  grounds  of  confidence  are  found  in  the  fact 
that  about  the  time  of  the  close  of  the  canon 

Samaritan 

(B.  C.  400)  a  copy  of  the  five  books  of  Moses 
was  made  in  the  Samaritan  dialect,  for  that  singular  people,  a 
mixture  of  Hebrews  and  Chaldeans,  gathered  in  that  portion 
of  the  land  of  Israel  called  Samaria  in  Christ's  times,  during 
the  captivity.  These  sacred  writings  this  people  (who  kept 
up  their  separate  life  and  their  enmity  for  the  Jewish  people, 
an  enmity  which  was  as  earnestly  returned  by  them)  as  care- 
fully preserved  as  their  Hebrew  neighbors  did  their  copies. 
In  A.  D.  1623  a  full  copy  of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  was 
obtained  from  a  body  of  this  nation  in  Damascus  by  De 
Saucy,  the  French  embassador  at  Constantinople.  Other 
copies  have  since  been  obtained  from  the  East,  and  the  text 

»  Daniel  ix,  2, 11. 
3 


34  THE   WOKD    OF    GOD  OPENED. 

of  the  two  versions  have  been  carefully  compared,  showing  a 
remarkable  correspondence. 

About  three  hundred  years  before  Chri&t,  through  the 
Macedonian  invasion  of  Syria   and  Persia  by 

The  Greek 

Alexander  the  Great,  the  Greek  language  and 
literature  were  spread  over  these  countries.  Alexander 
built  a  renowned  city,  bearing  his  name,  upon  4he  Medi- 
terranean in  Egypt.  During  the  wars  resulting  in  the 

Chaldean  captivity  many  of  the  Jews  had  re- 
Jews  in  Egypt. 

moved  to  Egypt ;  more  followed  under  the  per- 
secutions of  Antiochus,  the  successor  of  Alexander  in  the 
government  of  Syria.  Ptolemy,  and  his  successors  who 
bore  his  name,  into  whose  hands  Egypt  fell  upon  the  great 
conqueror's  death,  were  generous  in  their  treatment  of  their 
Jewish  subjects,  and  encouraged  their  emigration  to  the 
ancient  land  of  their  former  bondage.  They  had  a  temple 
in  Leontopolis  similar  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  fol- 
lowed the  Mosaic  order  in  their  worship.  These  Jews  all 
used  the  Greek  language.  About  the  year  two  hundred 
and  eighty  before  Christ,  for  the  benefit  of  these  Hellen- 
istic or  Grecian  Jews  at  Alexandria,  or  at  the  suggestion 
of  Demetrius  Phalerius,  librarian  of  the  world-renowned 
royal  library  at  Alexandria,  a  Greek  version  of  the  Hebrew 

Bible  was  made.     This  was  called  the  Septua- 

The  Septua- 

gint,  that  is,  Seventy,  from  the  tradition  that 
seventy  persons  were  employed  in  its  execution.  Many 
unreliable  fables  are  related  of  its  origin.  The  translators 
may  have  been  appointed  by  the  Sanhedrim,  or  Council 
of  Seventy,  at  Jerusalem,  or  their  work  may  have  been 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  85 

authenticated  by  the  council  consisting  of  the  same  number 
at  Alexandria. 

This  version  is  a  very  free  and  not  always  exact  translation 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  but  is  interesting  and  important  as 
the  most  ancient  version  of  the  entire  Old  Testament,  and  as 
made  by  learned  Jews  at  a  period  long  before 

Value  of  this 

the  date  of  the  oldest  existing  Hebrew  manu-  vers 
scripts,  and  before  the  Christian  era.  However  widely  Jews 
and  Christians  now  differ  from  each  other  in  their  views  of 
the  Messiah,  both  receive  as  the  word  of  their  common  Lord 
and  Master  this  embodied  and  completed  canon  of  ancient 
Scripture. 

But  still  more  interesting  and  important  is  the  fact  that  it 
was  this  version  of  the  Old  Testament  which  This  version 

used   by  our 

was  used  by  GUI  Lord  and  his  apostles,  and  Lord- 
from  which  they  made  the  many  hundred  quotations  t,o  be 
found  throughout  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  This 
version  renders  valuable  service  in  the  establishment  of  the 
correctness  of  the  present  text,  and  in  the  elucidation  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 

Having  passed  the  supervision  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
having  been  given  afresh  by  him  to  the  world  as  the  Scrip- 
tures of  truth,  and  affirmed  to  be  full  of  disclosures  of  him- 
self and  his  kingdom,4  the  question  as  to  whether  we  have 
the  whole  revelation  of  God,  and  with  a  good  degree  of  cor- 
rectness, as  to  the  Old  Testament,  is  most  satisfactorily  an- 
swered. The  books  in  this  version  are  the  same  found  in  out 
English  Bibles. 

«  John  v,  39 ;  Luko  xxlv,  27, 44. 


36  THE   WOKD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

Since  the  death  of  Christ  the  noted  Kabbinical  schools  in 
Rabbinical  Palestine  and  in  the  further  East,  and  Jewish 
scholars  of  various  nations,  haye  united  with 
|  Christians  in  seeking  to  perpetuate  pure  copies  of  these  ven- 
erable Scriptures,  which  contain  the  foundations  of  their 
common  faith. 

For  the  benefit  of  Christians  who  had  fled  to  the  East  in 
the  persecutions  that  followed  the  death  of  Christ,  a  version 
The  Syriac  or  °f  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in  the  first  cen- 

Peshito    ver- 
sion, tury  was  made  in  the  ancient  Syriac  or  Aramaic 

dialect,  the  tongue  generally  spoken  by  the  Jews  in  Palestine 
in  the  days  of  our  Lord,  and  which  he  himself  used.  This 
version  is  called  the  Peshito.  An  ancient  tradition,  which  is 
considered  at  least  to  be  probable,  says  that  this  version  was 
made  by  translators  who  were  evidently  Jewish  Christians, 
and  who  were  sent  from  the  city  of  Edesa,  in  Persia,  by  the 
apostle  Jude,  at  the  instance  of  King  Abgarus.  This  version 
is  of  great  critical  value.  Several  ancient  Arabic  versions 
and  the  Persian  version  of  the  Gospels  were  made  from  it. 

There  were  several  Latin  versions  of  the  Bible  made  from 

the  Septuagint,  the  most  valuable  of  which  was  called  the 

Italic,  made,  it  is  believed,  in  the  first  century 

Italic  version. 

from  Alexandrian  manuscripts.  This  version 
was  highly  esteemed  by  Augustine,  who  died  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  four  hundred  and  thirty. 

Origen  was  one  of  the  most  learned,  as  he  was  the  most 

famous,  of  the  early  fathers.     He  was  born  in 

Origen      and 

hi*  version.  Alexandria  A.  D.  one  hundred  and  eighty-five. 
He  wrote  voluminous  commentaries  upon  all  the  books  oi 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD  OPENED.  37 

Scripture;  but  his  great  work  was  the  thorough  levision 
which  he  made  of  the  Septuagint.  He  collated  it  with  the 
original  Hebrew,  and  as  many  Greek  and  other  versions  as 
he  could  secure.  He  spent  twenty-eight  years  upon  this 
work,  and  traveled  throughout  the  East  collecting  materials 
for  it.  This  vast  work,  which  consisted  of  six  parallel  ver- 
sions, and  of  some  books  eight,  extended  to  fifty  volumes; 
only  portions  of  it,  however,  were  transcribed,  and  have  been 
preserved,  while  the  main  work  perished.  The  result  of  his 
studies  in  correcting  the  Septuagint  were  not  entirely  lost. 

Jerome,  the  most  learned  of  the  early  European  fathers,  was 
born  in  the  province  of  Dalmatia,  now  in  the  em- 

Jerome. 

pire  of  modern  Austria,  A.  D.  346.  He  studied  at 
Rome,  and  in  the  German  city  Treves.  Afterward  for  four 
years  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  in  a 
cell  near  the  city  of  Antioch  in  Asia  Minor.  Here  he  ac- 
quired that  skill  in  the  Hebrew  language  which  he  turned  te 
so  good  account.  At  this  time  the  manuscript  copies  of  the 
Latin  versions  of  the  Bible  had  become  very  corrupt  through, 
omissions  and  additions,  notes  and  comments  being  often 
given  as  a  portion  of  the  sacred  text.  Jerome  was  highly 
esteemed  for  his  scholarship  and  saintly  character  by  Dam- 
asus,  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  at  his  request  was  induced  to 
undertake  a  new  version  of  the  Bible  in  Latin,  then  the  pre- 
vailing language  of  the  "Western  or  European  Church.  He 
availed  himself  of  the  labors  of  Origen,  and  of  all  the  early 
Eastern  versions  of  the  Scriptures.  Being  dissatisfied  with  the 
Septuagint  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  he  made  a  new  ver- 
sion from  the  Hebrew  text.  This  version  surpasses  all  former 


38  THE  WOKD   OF  GOD   OPENED. 

ones  in  the  care  with  which  it  is  executed,  and  in  its  gen- 
eral correctness.    This  is  the  famous  Yulgate  ver- 

The  Vulgate. 

sion,  (so  called  because  in  common  use,)  still  final 

authority  in  the  Koman  Church.  It  was  completed  about 
"A.  B.  390,  but  was  very  slowly  and  reluctantly  allowed  to  dis- 
place other  editions  in  use  in  the  Churches.  It  was  not  until 
Generally  in-  the  time  of  Pope  Gregory  I.,  in  the  seventh  cen- 

troduced     in  >      J 

century7enth     tury,  that  it  met  with  general  acceptance.    Its 

often  transcription  exposed  its  text  to  constant  variations,  and 

from  time  to  time  new  revisions  were  made.    The  first  book 

printed  was  a  copy  of  the  Yulgate  at  Mentz,  called 

Vulgate    first      r  1J 

the  "  Mazarin  Bible,"  about  A.  D.  1455,  copies  of 
which  are  still  extant.  In  1546  the  Council  of  Trent  ordained 
that  this  edition  should  be  "  esteemed  authentic,  and  that  no 
Declared  in-  one  should  dare  to  reject  it  under  any  pretense 

fallible     by 

ofeT?e0ntncU  whatever."  In  fact  they  declared  this  version  to 
be  an  inspired  book,  with  no  errors  in  it,  although  at  the  same 
time  they  tried  to  correct  some  of  the  errors  in  it.6 

Pope  Sixtus  V.,  in  1590,  ordered  a  revised  edition  to  be 
issued,  corrected  himself  the  proofs,  and  declared  it  to  be  of 
perpetual  authority  ;  but  there  were  so  many  errors  in  it  that 

his  successor  caused  the  whole  edition  to  be  can- 
Edition  of 
Pope  Sixtus.      ceied,     The  work  was  again  undertaken  under 

Clement  Yin.,  and  completed  in  1592.    This  is  the  author- 
itative edition  from  which  the  Roman  Catholic  copies  of  the 
Scriptures  in  Latin  are  printed.     It  is  not  al- 

Clementine 

lowed  to  be  criticised,  and  is  called  the  Clemen- 
tine edition. 

•  Manuscript  notes  of  Prof.  ShedcTs  Seminary  Lecturer 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.  39 

There  were  other  less  important  early  versions,  such  as  the 
Coptic,  the  language  spoken  by  the  native  Egyptians,  the 
Ethiopian,  the  Gothic,  the  tongue  of  the  invaders  of  Rome, 
Persian,  Arabian,  etc. ;  but  these  that  have  been  described 
somewhat  at  length  will  enable  us  to  see  the  important  serv- 
ice which  early  transcriptions  from  these  versions  afford  in 
the  criticism  and  interpretation  of  the  text  of  our  modern 
versions  of  the  holy  records. 

Before  referring  to  this  we  shall  consider  the  question  of  the 
authority  and  genuineness  of  the  canon  of  the  New 
Testament.  As  was  stated  in  the  opening  chap-  *"**«*  canon, 
ter,  God  spake  first  by  inspired  men,  While  the  apostles  lived 
and  moved  about  among  the  Churches  the  necessity  would 
not  exist  for  a  collection  of  the  records  of  Christ's  inspired  men 

preceded  the 

life  and  doctrines,  or  of  the  instructions  of  their     Scriptures, 
inspired  teachers.     The  early  Christians  were  permitted  to 
receive  the  facts  of  the  Gospel  from  the  lips  of  "  eye-wit- 
nesses," and  to  enjoy  the  discipline  of  the  apostles  them- 
selves. 

Dr.  Whedon  remarks,  in  the  introduction  to  his  Com- 
mentary upon  Luke  and  John,  that  after  the  Gospels  had 
been  written,  down  even  to  the  close  of  the  second  century, 
the  early  Church  clung  fondly  to  the  oral  traditions  handed 
down  from  the  Saviour's  and  from  apostolical  lips.  He 
quotes  from  Papias  as  saying :  "  I  do  not  think  Dr  whedon 
that  I  derived  so  much  benefit  from  books  as  from  munfiations  ~ 

from  the  apos- 

the  living  voice  of  those  who  are  still  surviving.     tollcal  a«e- 
If  I  met  with  any  one  who  had  been  a  follower  of  the  elders 
'the  apostles  and  their  contemporaries)  I  made  it  a  point 


40  THE   WORD    OF  GOD  OPENED. 

to  .inquire  what  were  the  declarations  of  the  elders,  and 
what  was  said  by  Andrew,  Peter,  or  Philip ;  what  by 
Thomas,  James,  John,  Matthew,  or  any  of  the  disciples  of 
our  Lord."  The  quotation  shows  both  that  sacred  manu- 
scripts were  then  in  existence,  and  also  that  their  personal 
traditions  from  the  lips  of  the  apostles  corresponded  with 
them  and  confirmed  them.  In  a  day  when  books  could  only 
be  multiplied  by  the  painful  process  of  copying  letter  lor 
letter,  we  can  readily  see  how  precious  these  personal  oral 
discourses  must  have  been.  It  would  appear  probable  that 
at  an  early  day  many  persons  made  records  of  such  incidents 
and  discourses  of  our  Lord  as  came  to  their  hear- 

Many  records 

ing,  for  Luke  says  in  the  introduction  to  his 
Gospel :  "  Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand  to  set  forth 
in  order  a  declaration  of  those  things  which  are  most  surely 
believed  among  us,  even  as  they  delivered  them  unto  us, 
which  from  the  beginning  were  eye-witnesses,  and  ministers 
of  the  word ;  it  seemed  good  to  me  also,  having  had  perfect 
understanding  of  all  things  from  the  very  first,  to  write,"  etc. 
AH  these  rec-  The  fact  that  all  these  other  written  records  were 

ords      disap- 
peared, allowed  to  perish,  and  are  never  referred  to  or 

quoted  by  early  Christian  writers,  is  a  very  significant  evi- 
dence of  the  different  estimation  in  which  the  four  evan- 
gelical records  were  held,  and  of  the  satisfactory  character 
of  the  writings  that  have  been  thus  divinely  preserved 
amid  the  general  loss  of  all  other  histories  of  these  amazing 
facts. 

The  Gospels  were  universally  admitted  in  the  early  Church 
to  have  been  written  by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear. 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD   OPENED.  41 

Matthew,  who  remained  in  Jerusalem,  wrote  his  Gospel  first, 
primarily  for  the  benefit  of  the  Hebrew  Chris-  Matth ew^  ^ 
tians  that  remained  through  all  the  persecutions  tianS 
in  Judea.  He  is  thought  by  some  to  have  been  related  to 
the  apostle  James,  sometimes  called  the  head  of  the  Church 
in  Jerusalem,6  and  a  similarity  is  pointed  out  between  Mat- 
thew's record  of  the  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  and  the  Epistle 
of  James.  He  brings  out  before  his  Jewish  readers  with 
great  distinctness  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus,  his  true  kingly 
character,  and  his  office  as  sent  to  the  lost  presents  the 

Messiahship 

sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.     From  James,  who     and    kingly 

character   of 

was,  after  the  flesh,  a  kinsman  of  the  Lord,  he  Chnst- 
may  have  learned  "  the  mystery  of  that  birth,  the  genealogy 
of  inheritance  which  heirs  of  the  house  of  David  treasured 
up,  the  visit  of  the  wise  men,  the  flight  into  Egypt.  How 
such  a  record  met  the  cravings  of  human  hearts  we  may 
judge  from  the  hold  which  the  history  of  the  nativity  has  in 
all  ages  had  upon  countless  thousands  of  loving  and  child- 
like hearts." 7 

•'  The  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,"  says  Alford,  "  is  that  one  to 
which  we  owe,  more  than  to  any  other,  our  complete  idea  of 
our  blessed  Lord  as  the  promised  Messiah,  the  holy  one  of 
God,  the  king  and  head  over  all  to  his  Church.  In  the  vivid 
depictions  of  St.  Mark  we  have  ever  his  personal  image  before 
us,  and  the  very  sound  of  his  voice ;  in  the  careful  and  pre- 
cious collections  of  St.  Luke  we  see  him  as  the  Saviour  of 
our  race,  the  head  and  root  of  our  humanity  ;  while  it  is  from 
this  first  and  best  known  of  the  Gospels  that  the  image  of 

«. Christ  and  Christendom,  pp.  53-56.  7  Ibid. 


42  THE  WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

him  especially  arises,  which  is  so  much  in  the  thoughts  and 
hearts  of  all  of  us  who  believe — that  chosen  One,  in  whom 
center  all  the  ways  and  works  of  God ;  perfect  in  majesty, 
perfect  in  mercy;  the  king's  son,  for  whom  is  made  the 
great  marriage  of  heaven  and  earth ;  the  bridegroom,  into 
whose  feast  the  wise  and  virgin  souls  shall  enter ;  the  king 
himself,  who  shall  come  to  take  account  of  his  own  servants  ; 
nay,  who  shall  come,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him,  and 
sit  on  the  throne  of  his  glory,  with  all  the  nations  before  him, 
and  allot  to  every  one  his  eternal  doom."  * 
John,  surnamed  Mark,  was  the  nephew  of  Barnabas.9  His 

mother,  the  sister  of  Paul's  first  companion  in  mis- 
Mark. 

sionary  labors,10  must  have  been  an  early  disciple, 

and  her  house  in  Jerusalem  the  resort,  perhaps,  of  Christ 
and  the  apostles.  Certainly  Peter  made  a  home  there.11  The 
Written  un-  old  tradition  is  strongly  confirmed  that  he  wrote 

der    sanction 

his  Gospel  under  the  guidance  of  the  apostle 
Peter.  He  was  with  this  apostle  when  he  wrote  his  epistles 
to  the  Churches.12  In  the  Second  Epistle  Peter  intimates 
that  he  had  taken  measures  to  enable  the  Asiatic  Churches 
Peter  seems  to  "have  in  remembrance"  that  the  incidents 

to  promise  a 

Gospel.  which  they  had  heard  about  the  Lord  Jesus 

Christ  from  his  lips  were  not  "  cunningly-devised  fables."  13 
Probably  in  this  he  referred  to  the  fact  that  his  son  Marcus, 
as  he  affectionately  calls  him,  was  recording  from  his  lips  the 
incidents  in  sacred  history  that  had  passed  under  his  eye, 
Of  his  Gospel,  Plumptre  remarks,  "There  are,  as  has  been 

B  How  to  Study  the  New  Testament,  p.  77.         •  Aqts  iv,  30.         l°  Acts  xiii,  2, 
11  Acts  xii,  12.  12 1  Peter  v,  13.  »« 2  Peter  i,  15,  16, 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD   OPENED.  43 

often  noticed,  vivid  pictorial  touches  which  speak  of  knowl- 
edge such  as  belongs   to  an  eye-witness:   The     Evidently 

written  by  an 

scene  of  the  '  green  grass '  in  Bethsaida,  and  the  eye-witness. 
groups  in  which  the  multitude  arranged  themselves  by 
hundreds  and  fifties ;  the  dashing  of  the  waves  in  the  ship 
while  our  Lord  was  sleeping  on  the  boat's  cushion  in  the 
stern;  the  smaller  craft  that  accompanied  the  ship  of  the 
disciples ;  the  touches  of  personal  knowledge  in  the  history 
of  the  demoniac  who  plucked  asunder  his  chains  and  ground 
his  fetters  together  till  they  were  broken ;  of  the  woman  with 
the  issue  of  blood,  who  had  suffered  many  things  of  many 
physicians,  and  had  spent  all  that  she  had ; 14  of  the  glance 
and  gesture  with  which  the  Lord  looked  round  in  anger  at 
the  hardness  of  men's  hearts,  or  in  pity  and  yearning  love 
upon  the  rich  young  ruler,  or  in  approving  welcome  to 
the  disciples  whom  he  claimed  as  his  true  kindred ;  the 
special  notice  of  the  strange  apparition  in  Gethsemane  of 
the  young  man  with  the  linen  cloth  cast  around  his  naked 
body ; 15  these  are  but  a  few  of  the  long  list  of  details  of  like 
nature." 

Mark's  Gospel  is  not  eminently  one  adapted  for  the  He- 
brews like  Matthew's,  nor  for  the  Gentiles  as  was.    Adapted    to 

Jew  and  Gen- 

Luke's,  but  belonged  equally  to  both,  as  Peter     tile, 
was  at  once  an  apostle  to  the  circumcision,  and  was  chosen  to 
open  the  door  of  faith  to  the  Gentile  world.16 
Luke,  the  "  beloved  physician "  "  and  companion 

Luke. 

of  Paul,  is  supposed  to  have  written  the  two  treat- 

"  Mark  iv,  36,  88;  v,  25,  26;  vi,  39,  40.  15  Mark  iii,  5;  x,  21 ;  iii,  34. 

16  Christ  and  Christendom,  p.  49.  17  Colossians  iv,  14. 


44  THE  WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

ises  bearing  his  name  under  the  eye  of  the  apostle  to  the 

Gentiles.     Luke  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  resident  of  An- 

tioch,  and  to   have  become  acquainted  with  Paul  in  this 

city.18    This  city  became  the  center  of  the  Gen- 

Antioch. 

tile  Church,  as  Jerusalem  was  of  the  Church  of 
the  circumcision.  "The  prominence  given  to  the  arrival 
there  of  the  men  of  wider  thoughts  who  left  Jerusalem  after  the 
death  of  Stephen,  and  then  of  the  men  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene, 
who  took  the  bold  step  of  preaching  to  the  heathen,  and  then 
of  Barnabas  and  Saul,  the  stress  laid  on  the  new  name  of 
Christian,  as  originating  there,  and  on  the  liberality  of  that 
Church  to  the  poor  at  Jerusalem;  the  list  of  prophets  con- 
spicuous there  ;  but,  with  the  exception  of  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
not  otherwise  memorable,19  are  .  all  indications  of  the  writer's 
residence  in  Antioch  between  the  time  of  St.  Paul's  conver- 
sion and  his  first  missionary  journey.  And  if  so,  then  we  are 


The    sources     a^le  to  trace,  with  hardly  a  shadow  of  uncer- 

of  Luke's  Gos- 

i)el-  tainty,  the  channels  through  which  he  may  have 

obtained  most  of  the  materials  of  his  narrative.  Those  that 
fled  from  Jerusalem  on  the  persecution  must  have  included 
some  of  the  personal  disciples  of  Christ.20  The  fullness  with 
which  all  facts  connected  with  the  personal  history  of  Herod 
Antipas  are  told  is  accounted  for  when  we  remember  that 
one  of  the  chief  teachers  at  Antioch  was  Manaen,  the  foster 

18  "Luke,  the  "beloved  physician,  and  Demas,  greet  you."  Thus  wrote  St. 
Paul  from  his  prison  at  Eome  to  the  Colossians.  "  Demas  hath  forsaken  me 
having  loved  this  present  world.  .  .  .  Only  Luke  is  with  me."  Thus  he  wrote 
some  years  after  when  ho  was  now  ready  to  be  offered  up,  and  the  time  of  hii 
departure  was  at  hand,  to  his  son  Timotheus.—  Dean  Afford. 

«  Actsxiii,  1.  20  Acts  xxi,  16. 


THE  WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  45 

brother  of  the  tetrarch ;  that  the  wife  of  Herod's  steward  had 
been  one  of  the  faithful  women  who  followed  our  Lord 
through  his  ministrations.  The  clew  thus  obtained  leads  us, 
I  believe,  yet  farther.  1.  One  of  the  most  distinctive  features 
of  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke  is  the  full  collection  of  parables 
and  narratives,  belonging  all  of  them  to  one  and 

Parables     of 

the  same  journey,  the  last  journey  through  Persea  Lu  e' 
toward  Jerusalem.  In  Persea  was  one  of  the  strongholds  of 
Antipas.  If  there  were  those  in  his  court  who  were  avow- 
edly or  in  heart  disciples  of  the  Nazarene,  this  would  be  the 
teaching  with  which  they  would  come  most  in  contact,  and 
be  most  anxious  to  preserve.  2.  Hardly  less  characteristic  is 
the  special  fullness  and  the  marked  Hebrew  stamp  of  his  nar- 
rative of  the  nativity.  Was  he  incorporating  a  Hebrew 
record  with  his  own  ?  and  if  so,  where  did  that 

Account  >    of 

come  from?  on  whose  testimony  did  it  rest?  thenativity- 
why  was  it  preserved?  Friendship  with  Herod's  foster- 
brother  and  the  wife  of  Herod's  steward  would  lead  to  some 
knowledge  of  the  other  members  of  the  devout  circle  of 
women  whom  St.  Luke  names  so  conspicuously,21  of  the 
mother  of  James  and  John,  of  Mary  of  Magdala,  of  those 
sisters  of  Bethany  whom  he  is  the  first  to  mention.22  But  in 
that  group  there  had  once  been  one  around  whom  they  must 
have  gathered  with  the  love  of  daughters,  and  all  but  the 
reverential  awe  of  worshipers.  They  had  known  the  mother 
of  the  Lord.  Some  of  them  must  have  lived  for  years  in 
closest  contact  with  her.  They  would  treasure  up  every 
record  of  that  marvelous  history  which  she  had  kept  and 
21  Luke  viii,  2,  3.  22  Luke  x,  88-42. 


46  THE  WORD    OF  GOD  OPENED. 

pondered  in  her  heart.  From  them  and  through  them,  with 
no  doubtful  or  deteriorating  transmission,  from  her  may 
have  come  that  which  we  may  call  the  true  Gospel  of  tho 
infancy." 23 

John  outlived  all  the  apostles,  and  is  recorded  to  have  ac- 
knowledged publicly  the  authority  of  the  first  three 

John. 

Gospels,  and  to  have  added  his  own  to  complete 
them.  In  the  same  way,  though  less  directly,  he  is  supposed 
to  have  attested  the  book  of  Acts.24  "As  there  were  rea 
sons,"  Plumptre  remarks  in  his  lectures,  from  which  we  have 
already  quoted,  "personal,  it  may  be,  which  prevented  the 
record  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus  from  being  made  known  till 
Early  Gospels  ^e  himself  had  died  or  had  left  Jerusalem,  so,  as 

reserved     on  . 

some  points.  long  as  the  apostle  remained  there,  in  filial  con- 
secration of  his  life  to  the  care  of  his  Lord's  mother,  the 
records  that  were  current  in  the  Churches  of  Palestine  were 
probably  in  harmony  with  that  reserve,  and  are  represented 
by  what  reflects  directly  and  indirectly  the  teaching  of  the 
apostles  of  the  circumcision,  modified  in  the  case  of  Luke  by 
his  association  with  St.  Paul  and  with  the  prophets  of  An- 
tioch,  and  in  that  of  St.  Mark  by  his  fellowship  with  both 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  the  substance,  that  is,  of  the  first  three 
Gospels.  But  when  the  changes  of  his  life  carried  the  fisher- 
man of  Bethsaida  to  the  Asiatic  Churches  he  found  the  way 
Paul  had  prepared  for  him  by  the  labors  of  the  apostle  of 

opened      the      * 

Gospei?r  the  Gentiles.  The  Gospel,  communicated  at  Je- 
rusalem privately,  and  to  a  few,  had  been  preached  in  its 

2*  Christ  and  Christendom,  pp.  64,  68. 
a«  Wordsworth  on  the  Canon,  pp.  156, 160. 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  47 

fullness  to  those  to  whoni  that  apostle  had  not  shrunk  (mani- 
festly contrasting  himself  with  other  teachers  who  did  shrink) 
from  '  proclaiming  the  whole  counsel  of  God ;'  to  whom  he 
had  spoken  of  the  blood  shed  upon  the  cross  as  the  blood  of 
God ; 25  who  had  heard,  in  the  utterance  of  prophets,  that 
God,  or  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  had  been  manifest  in  the 
flesh ; 2<J  that  in  him  dwelt  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily.27 
Side  by  side  with  this  preparation  for  the  truth  there  were 
strange  caricatures  and  denials  of  it.  Some  denied  that  the 
Christ  had  come  in  the  flesh,28  others  that  Jesus 

False  views  of 

was  the  Christ,29  or  that  he  was  indeed  the  Son  Chrisfc' 
of  God,30  or  that  they  had  any  fellowship  with  him,  and 
through  him  with  the  Father.  For  them  the  Christ  was  a 
Jewish  teacher  only,  or  all  true  personality  was  lost  in  dreams 
and  words.  Here,  then,  was  that  which  called  for  something 
more  than  the  Church  already  had — for  the  witness,  which 
none  could  bear  so  well  as  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  to 
the  reality  of  his  Lord's  human  nature,  his  affection,  his 
weariness,  his  tears — to  what  had  been  his  own 

John  presents 

teaching  as  to  himself  and  his  relation  to  his  Fa-  the  tme  idea* 
ther,  when  that  teaching  reached  its  highest  point  and  re- 
vealed the  full  glory  of  the  truth.  It  might  seem  at  first 
that  the  tie  of  a  divine  adoption,  which  brought  together  St. 
John  and  the  mother  of  the  Lord,  would  have  led  him  to 
give  with  a  rich  and  overflowing  fullness  a  record  why  he  says 

nothing  of  the 

of  the  facts  of  the  nativity,  instead  of  leaving  it     nativity. 
in  a  profound  silence;   yet  the  very  omission  is,  I  believe, 

«  Acts  xx,  28.  so  !  Timt  i^  16>  27  Col.  i,  19. 

aa  1  John  iv,  3.  29  i  jonll  ij,  22.  so  Uohn  iv,  15. 


48  THE  WOKD    OF    GOD   OPENED. 

significant  and  instructive.  The  record  of  all  that  Christiana 
needed  as  to  that  history  was  current  already  in  the  Church. 
In  the  yery  depths  of  his  sympathy  and  reverence  for  the 
virgin  mother  his  spirit  would  grow  like  hers,  who  *  kept  all 
these  things,  and  pondered  them  in  her  heart.'  A  Church  in 
which  that  history  occupies  in  men's  minds  a  position  out  of 
proportion  to  that  which  is  assigned  to  it  in  the  Gospel 
record,  is  on  its  way  to  Mariolatry.  With  an  anticipation, 
conscious  or  unconscious,  of  the  dangers  of  a  time  to  come, 
the10  sirong  ^'  ^°^nj  ^v^g  others  to  give  the  "  pure  milk  " 
Gosapei?f  the  which  was  needed  for  the  life  of  spiritual  child- 
hood, himself  supplies  the  "  strong  meat,"  the  solid  food  of 
thought,  meeting  the  wants  of  those  who  are  of  full  age — the 
cravings  of  man's  heart  and  reason.  If  he  names  the  mother 
of  the  Lord,  whom  he  had  known  so  well,  it  is  to  indicate  in 
what  entire  independence  of  her  control  and  guidance  he  had 
manifested  his  kingdom,31  not  as  exalted  to  a  throne  left 
vacant  in  the  heavens,  a  title  wonderful  and  majestic,  but  as 
a  mother,  lonely  and  bereaved,  needing  the  protection  which 
it  had  been  his  duty  and  joy  to  give." 

Dr.  Barnes,  in  his  course  of  lectures  upon  the  "  Evidences 
of  Christianity,"  remarking  upon  the  humble  origin,  as  com- 
pared with  the  influence  of  their  writings,  of  the  inspired 
authors,  refers  to  the  Apostle  John  as  an  illustration,  and 
goes  on  to  say :  "  He  was  a  fisherman  on  the  Lake  of  Tiberias 
when  Jesus  first  saw  him  and  called  him  to  the  work  of  an 
apostle.  We  have  his  Gospel,  and  we  have  his  book  of 
*  Revelation,'  and,  bearing  in  remembrance  that  he  was  a 
»i  John  ii,  4. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  49 

fisherman,  we  are  to  ask,  What  would  fishermen  taken  from 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  from  Marblehead  and     Literature  of 

St.  John  the 

Gloucester,  or  from  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland,  fisherman, 
be  likely  to  produce  if  called  to  compose  a  book  on  the 
subject  of  John's  Gospel  or  the  Book  of  Revelation  ?"  Dr. 
Barnes  proceeds  to  quote  from  a  discourse  of  Dr.  Dwight,  in 
which  the  same  thought  is  eloquently  developed :  "  The 
apostle  John  was  born  in  an  age  when  the  philosophy  of  his 
country  was  a  mere  mass  of  quibbling,  its  religion  a  com- 
pound of  pride  and  bigotry,  and  its  worship  a  ceremonious 
parade.  His  lineage,  his  circumstances,  and  his  employment 
were  those  of  a  fisherman.  On  what  natural  principle  can  it 
be  accounted  for  that,  like  the  sun  breaking  out  of  an 
evening  cloud,  this  plain  man,  in  these  circumstances,  should 
at  an  advanced  age  burst  upon  mankind  with  a  flood  of 
effulgence  and  glory  ?  Whence  did  it  arise  that  in  purity  of 
precept,  discernment  of  truth,  and  an  acquaintance  with  the 
moral  character  of  man  and  the  attributes  of  his  Maker,  this 
peasant  leaves  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Cicero  out  of  sight  and 
out  of  remembrance  ?  Do  you  question  the  truth  of  this 
representation  ?  The  proof  is  at  hand  and  complete.  There 
is  not  a  child  of  fifteen  who,  if  possessed  of  the  common 
education  of  this  land,  would  not  disdain  to  worship  their 
gods  or  to  embrace  their  religion.  But  Bacon  and  Boyle, 
Butler  and  Berkeley,  Newton  and  Locke,  Addison  and  John- 
son, Jones  and  Horsley,  have  submissively  embraced  the 
religion  of  St.  John,  and  worshiped  the  God  whose  character 
he  has  unfolded.  Their  systems  have  long  since  gone  to  the 
grave  of  oblivion.  His  has  been  animated  with  increasing 

4 


50  THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED. 

vigor  to  the  present  hour,  and  will  lire  and  flourish  through 
endless  ages.  Their  writings  have  not  made  one  man  vir- 
tuous. His  have  peopled  heaven  with  the  children  of  light. 
The  seventeenth  chapter  of  his  Gospel,  written  as  it  is  with 
the  simplicity  of  a  child,  in  grandeur  of  conception  and 
in  splendor  of  moral  excellence  triumphs  with  inexpressible 
glory  over  all  the  efforts  of  human  .genius,  and  looks  down 
from  heaven  on  the  proudest  labors  of  infidelity."  33 

There  are  thirteen  of  the  epistles  of  Paul  which  bear  his 
Paul  and  his  name-  His  companions,  Christian  ministers,  were 
his  amanuenses,  or  witnessed  his  writing  these 
letters.33  His  epistles  were  sent  to  the  Churches  by  private 
messengers.84  Mne  of  them  were  addressed  to  public  bodies, 
and  he  commanded  them  to  be  openly  read. 

Peter,  in  his  epistle,  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that  they 
Peter  bears  wefe  accounted  as  inspired  Scriptures,36  and  read 
to8  thdrm°hf.  with  those  of  the  Old  Testament.  Indeed,.when 

spired        au- 
thority. Peter  wrote  his  epistles,  all  the  epistles  of  Paul 

had  been  written,  and  are,  therefore,  referred  to  under  this 
title  of  Scriptures,  a  term  only  applied  by  the  Jews  to  in- 
spired writings.  "The  conclusion,  therefore,  is,  that  these 
epistles  are  Paul's,  (whose  name  they  bear,)  and  that  they 
have  what  Paul  claimed  for  them,  and  what  the  early  Church 
ascribed  to  them,  inspired,  and  therefore  canonical,  authority. 
They  are  not  the  words  which  man  teaches ;  they  are  the 
words  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

99  Quoted  in  Evidences  of  Christianity  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  259. 

"  1  Thess.  i,  1 ;  2  Thess.  i,  1 ;  Eom.  xvi,  22. 

w  Romans  xvi,  1.  3&  2  Peter  iii,  15, 16. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  51 

The  apostle  who  survived  the  others,  the  beloved  John,  died 
at  the  close  of  the  first  century.  Within  the  period  of  a  hu- 
man life  after  his  death  Papias,  bishop  of  Hierapolis,  in  Asia 
Minor,  about  A.  D.  120,  and  Irenseus,  born  about  A.  D.  140, 
and  who  died  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  cen- 

Papias      and 

tury,  professing  to  record  the  testimony  of  the  Irenaeus- 
generation  before  them,  refer  to  the  Gospels  as  we  have  them, 
as  "the  words  or  oracles  of  the  Lord."  36  Irenaeus  was  bishop 
of  the  first  Christian  Church  at  Lyons  in  Gaul,  now  France. 
He  wrote  a  great  work  against  the  errorists  of  the  day,  and 
quoted  from  the  Gospels,  as  admitted  by  all  to  be  final 
authority.  He  quotes  about  four  hundred  passages  from 
them.  He  also  quoted  from  all  the  epistles,  except  Philemon 
and  Hebrews,  of  which  Dr.  Lardner,  in  his  work  upon  the 
"Credibility  of  the  Scriptures,"  gives  eighteen  examples. 
Irenaeus,87  in  his  youth,  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  aged  Polycarp, 

86  Christ  and  Christendom,  by  E.  H.  Plump tre,  p.  41. 

37  Westcott  remarks  in  his  "  History  of  the  Canon  of  the  New  Testament," 
"It  is  almost  impossible  for  any  one  whose  ideas  of  communication  are  suggested 
by  the  railway  and  the  printing-press  to  understand  how  far  mere  material 
hinderances  must  have  prevented  a  speedy  and  unanimous  settlement  of  the 
canon.  The  means  of  intercourse  were  slow  and  precarious.  The  multiplica- 
tion of  manuscripts  in  remote  provinces  was  tedious  and  costly.  The  common 
meeting-point  of  Christians  was  destroyed  by  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  from 
that  time  national  Churches  grew  up  around  their  separate  centers,  enjoying  in 
a  great  measure  the  freedom  of  individual  development,  and  exhibiting,  often 
In  exaggerated  forms,  peculiar  tendencies  of  doctrine  or  ritual.  As  a  natural 
consequence,  the  circulation  of  different  parts  of  the  New  Testament  for  a  while 
depended  more  or  less  on  their  supposed  connection  with  specific  forms  of 
Christianity."  After  illustrating  this  statement,  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  From  the 
close  of  the  second  century  the  history  of  the  canon  is  simple,  and  its  proof  is 
clear.  It  is  allowed  even  by  those  who  have  reduced  the  genuine  apostolic 
works  to  the  narrowest  limits,  that  from  the  time  of  Irenseus  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  composed  essentially  of  the  same  books  which  we  recv.  !ve  at  present 


62  THE   WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

a  disciple  of  the  apostle  John.  In  a  letter  he  thus  most 
irenffius  a  affectingly  alludes  to  his  acquaintance  with  this 

disciple     of 

Poiycarp.  pupil  of  the  apostles :  "I  can  recall  the  very 
place  where  Poiycarp  used  to  sit  and  teach,  his  manner  of 
speech,  his  mode  of  life,  his  appearance,  the  style  of  his 
address  to  the  people,  his  frequent  reference  to  St.  John  and 
to  others  who  had  seen  our  Lord ;  how  he  used  to  repeat 
from  memory  their  discourses  which  he  had  heard  from  them 
concerning  our  Lord,  his  miracles  and  mode  of  teaching,  and 
how,  being  instructed  himself  by  those  who  were  eye-wit- 
nesses of  the  Word,  there  wTas  in  all  that  he  said  a  strict 
agreement  with  the  Scriptures." 38  WTiat  more  interesting 
or  satisfactory  confirmation  could  we  have  than  the  testimony 
of  this  eminent  Christian  minister,  but  one  generation  re- 
moved from  the  apostles,  of  the  estimation,  as  a  divine 
record,  in  which  our  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament  were 
held? 

The  learned  and  eloquent  Tertullian,  who  lived  at  Carthage 
at  the  close  of  the  second  century,  makes  constant 

Tertullian. 

quotations  from  the  Gospels.  He  says :  "  We 
lay  this  down  for  a  certain  truth,  that  the  evangelic  Scrip- 
tures have  for  their  authors  the  apostles,  to  whom  the  work 
of  publishing  the  Gospel  was  committed  by  the  Lord  him- 

and  that  they  were  regarded  with  the  same  reverence  as  Is  now  shown  to  them.'1 
This  able  scholar  then  shows,  by  an  exhaustive  examination  of  such  writings  of 
the  apostolical  fathers  as  still  exist,  that  from  the  age  of  the  apostles  themselvea 
to  this  period  of  absolute  certainty  we  have  the  most  assuring  testimony,  aris- 
ing out  of  constant  quotations,  that  the  present  books  of  the  New  Testament 
came  from  the  hands  of  the  apostles  of  Christ. 
»8  w  when  were  our  Gospels  written  ?"  Constantino  Tlschendorf,  p.  77. 


THE  WOED    OF   GOD    OPENED.  53 

self.  Among  the  apostles  John  and  Matthew  teach  us  faith, 
among  the  apostolical  men  Luke  and  Mark  re-  His  testimony 

as  to  Gospels 

sresl  it."  3 '  He  speaks  with  equal  respect  and  and  Epistles. 
positiveness  of  the  epistles:  "If  you  be  willing  to  exercise 
your  curiosity  profitably  in  the  business  of  your  salvation 
visit  the  apostolical  Churches,  in  which  the  very  chairs  of 
the  apostles  still  preside;  in  which  their  very  authentic 
letters  are  recited,  sounding  forth  the  voice,  and  representing 
the  countenance,  of  each  one  of  them.  Is  Achaia  near 
you?  You  have  Corinth.  If  you  are  not  far  from  Mace- 
donia, you  have  Philippi,  you  have  Thessalonica.  If  you 
can  go  to  Asia  you  have  Ephesus;  but  if  you  are  near 
to  Italy  you  have  Rome,  from  whence  we  may  also  be  easily 
satisfied." 40 

Justin  Martyr,  who  was  born  not  long  after  the  death  of 
the  apostles,  A.  D.  130,  and  was  acquainted  with 

Justin  Martyr. 

their  immediate  disciples,  speaks  often  in  his 
writings  of  the  Gospels  as  of  unquestioned  authority,  under 
the  title  of  Memoirs  of  Christ,  and  says  that  the  "  apostles 
composed  them."  He  also  refers  to  the  Acts,  to  nearly  all 
the  epistles,  and  to  the  Revelation.  He  also  declares  that  it 
was  a  general  practice  to  read  the  Gospels  "at  Speaks  of  use 

of  Scriptures 

public  worship  in  Christian  assemblies  every  sembiies?  as" 
Lord's  day,"  and  to  discourse  upon  them.  "We  come  to- 
gether," he  says,  "to  recollect  the  divine  Scriptures.  "We 
nourish  our  faith,  raise  our  hope,  confirm  our  trust  by  the 
sacred  word." 41 

89  Canon  and  Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  by  Professor  M'Lelland,  p.  66L 
40  Ibid.  «i  Canon  and  Interpretation,  p.  58. 


54  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Some  time  between  the  first  and  second  century  the  old 

Syriac  version  of  the  Bible,  heretofore  referred  to,  which  has 

come  down  to  us  in  a  sound  condition,  was 

The.   Syriac 

made.4*    The  most  ancient  copies  of  it  lacked 

Second  Peter,  Second  and  Third  John,  and  probably  James ; 

but  with  these  exceptions  it  contains  all  the  sacred  writings 

found  in  the  canonical  Scriptures,  and  no  other  books.     The 

old  Italic  versions  were  made  in  the  same  period. 

The  Italic. 

These  contain  all  the  books  of  our  collection. 
When  we  come  down  to  the  third  century  we  meet  the 
testimony  of  that  unequaled  scholar  and  most  faithful  stu- 

42  Of  this  version  Westcott  remarks  it  "is  assigned  almost  universally  to  the 
most  remote  Christian  antiquity.  ...  If  a  conjecture  may  be  allowed,  I  think 
that  the  various  facts  of  the  case  are  adequately  explained  by  supposing  that 
versions  of  separate  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  first  made  and  used  in 
Palestine,  perhaps  within  the  apostolic  age,  and  that  shortly  afterward  these 
were  collected,  revised,  and  completed  at  Edessa.  Many  circumstances  com- 
bine to  give  support  to  this  belief.  The  early  condition  of  the  Syrian  Church, 
its  wide  extent,  and  active  vigor,  lead  us  to  expect  that  a  version  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  into  the  common  dialect  could  not  have  been  long  deferred ;  and  the 
existence  of  an  Aramaic  Gospel  (Matthew)  was  in  itself  likely  to  suggest  the 
work.  Differences  of  style,  no  less  than  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  point  to 
separate  translations  of  different  books,  and  at  the  same  time  a  certain  general 
uniformity  of  character  bespeaks  some  subsequent  revision.  I  have  ventured 
to  specify  the  place  at  which  I  believe  that  this  revision  was  made.  Whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  alleged  intercourse  of  Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa,  with  our 
Lord,  Edessa  itself  is  signalized  in  early  Church  history  by  many  remarkable 
facts.  It  was  called  the  'holy'  and  the  'blessed'  city;  its  inhabitants  were 
said  to  have  been  brought  over  by  Thaddeus  in  a  marvelous  manner  to  the 
Christian  faith,  'and  from  that  time  forth'  Eusebius  adds,  'the  whole  people  of 
Edessa  has  continued  to  be  devoted  to  the  name  of  Christ,  exhibiting  no  ordi- 
nary instance  of  the  goodness  of  our  Saviour.'  In  the  second  century  it  became 
the  center  of  an  important  Christian  school,  and  long  afterward  retained  its 
pre-eminence  among  the  cities  of  its  province." — A  General  Survey  of  tlie 
History  of  the  Canon  of  the  New  Testament.  By  BBOOKE  FOBS  WESTCOTT, 
B.  D,,  p.  206. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD   OPENED.  55 

dent  of  the   Scriptures  for  a  lifetime,  Origen,  A.  D.  230. 
He  says  of  the  Gospels,  as  we  now  accept  them,     Origen  on  the 

New      Testa- 

"They  are  received  without  dispute  by  the  ment- 
whole  Church  of  God  under  heaven."  In  another  place  he 
aays,  "  Matthew  sounds  first  with  his  priestly  trumpet  in  his 
Gospel ;  Mark  also,  and  Luke  and  John,  sounded  with  their 
priestly  trumpets.  Peter  likewise  sounds  aloud  with  the  two 
trumpets  of  his  epistles,  James  also,  and  Jude ;  and  John 
sounds  again  with  his  trumpet  in  his  epistles  and  the  Reve- 
lation, and  Luke  also,  once  more  relating  the  actions  of  the 
apostles.  Last  of  all  (in  his  list  of  books)  comes  Paul, 
and,  sounding  with  the  trumpet  of  his  fourteen  epistles, 
he  threw  down  to  the  foundations  the  walls  of  Jericho, 
and  all  the  engines  of  idolatry,  and  the  schemes  of  the 
philosophers." 43 

About  the  year  A.  D.  300  a  learned,  wealthy,  and  Chris: 
tian  minister  and  book  collector  named  Parn- 

Pamphilus. 

philus  gathered  every  scrap  of  Christian  litera- 
ture upon  which  he  could  lay  his  hands,  and  upon  his  death 
he  gave  this  invaluable  library  to  the  Church  at  Csesarea  in 
Palestine,  where  he  lived,  to  be  used  by  Eusebius,  his  pastor, 
during  his  life.  He  was  inflamed  with  so  great  a  love  for 
sacred  literature  that  he  copied  with  his  own  hand  the  chief 
part  of  the  works  of  Origen.  His  library  is  frequently  men- 
tioned by  ancient  writers.  Jerome  found  the  works  of  Origen 
in  this  library.  Out  of  this  large  and  rare  ma- 

Eusebiug. 

terial  Eusebius  wrote  his  history  of  the  Church 

during  the  preceding  centuries,  and  authenticates  the  in- 

*3  Canon  and  Interpretation,  p.  55. 


56  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

spired  books  which  had  been  in  use  from  the  beginning. 
He  includes  all  found  in  our  present  canon,  and  no  others. 

Constantine  the  Great,  the  Roman  emperor,  who  was  the 
Constantino  contemporary  of  the  Bishop  of  Csesarea,  and 
was  an  eager  and  delighted  reader  of  the  New 
Testament,  was  accustomed  to  read  every  day  a  portion  of 
Scripture  to  his  household,  and  to  offer  prayer.  He  wrote  to 
Eusebius  to  supervise  the  preparation  for  him  of  fifty  copies 
Fifty  Greek  °^  ^e  ent^re  Greek  Scriptures,  and  ordered  two 

copies  of  the 

Scriptures         government  wagons,  under  the  special  char  ore  of 

made  by  Eu- 

a  deacon  of  the  Church  at  Csesarea,  to  transport 
them  when  completed  to  Constantinople.  These  manu- 
scripts, which  Eusebius  caused  to  be  executed  promptly  and 
with  great  pleasure,  the  emperor  gave  to  the  principal 
Churches  to  be  read  in  the  public  worship.  They  were  also 
transcribed  for  the  use  of  other  Churches.  To  this  source, 
probably,  we  owe  all  our  best  manuscripts  of  the  Greek  Tes- 
tament, the  Alexandrian,  the  Vatican,  the  Ephraim,  and  the 
Sinaitic,  discovered  by  Tischendorf.44 

Jerome  in  the  same  century,   (A.  D.  322,)  with  all  the 
authorities  of  previous  generations  under  his  eye,  prepared 

his  well-known  Vulgate  edition  of  the  Bible, 

Jerome. 

which  remains  to  this  day  as  it  came  from  his 
hand,  save  the  introduction  of  the  apocryphal  books  by  the 
Council  of  Trent. 

Some    books         During  the  early  centuries  a  few  of  the  books 
lament  held     of  the  New  Testament,  such  as  the  Epistles  of 

a  while  in  sus- 
pense. James,  Second  Peter,  and  Second  and  Third  John, 

««  Origin  and  History  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible.    By  C.  E.  STOWE,  D.  B ,  p.  5& 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED.  57 

and  the  Revelation,  were  for  a  time  held  in  doubt ;  but  after 
careful  examination  were  received  into  the  canon.  The  very 
hesitation  shown  both  confirms  the  genuineness  of  Hesitation  an 

evidence     of 

these  books  (for  they  were  only  received  after     canonicity. 
careful  examination)  and  increases  our  confidence  in  the  di- 
vine authority  of  the  others.     None  were  received  without 
unqualified  apostolical  origin.     Certain  works  attributed  to 
the  early  fathers  were  sometimes  found  connected       Apocyphrai 

New  Testa- 

with  the  inspired  manuscripts,  as  the  so-called  merit. 
"  Epistle  of  Barnabas  "  and  a  part  of  the  "  Pastor  of  Hernias  " 
were  found  united  with  the  Sinaitic  manuscript  of  the  Scrip- 
tures which  Tischendorf  found  in  the  convent  of  Mount 
Sinai.  These  writings  have  never  been  received  by  any 
number  of  persons  as  inspired,  and  are  of  value  only  on  ac- 
count of  their  early  Christian  origin.  In  the  latter  case  they 
show  the  age  of  the  manuscript  with  which  they 

Use  of these 

were  bound,  proving  it  to  be  one  of  the  oldest  wntmss. 
copies  of  the  Septuagint,  as  having  been  made  as  early  at 
least  as  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  century ;  and  by  the  con- 
trast of  their  contents  they  show  the  unapproachable  author- 
ity, simplicity,  and  truth  of  the  divine  oracles  as  gathered 
into  the  present  canon.  The  editor  of  the  "  Journal  of 
Sacred  Literature,"  B.  H.  Cooper,  has  just  prepared  an  edi- 
tion of  the  apocryphal  Gospels.  He  says  in  his  introduc- 
tion, "Before  I  undertook  this  work  I  never  realized  so 
completely  the  impassable  character  of  the  gulf  which  sep- 
arates the  genuine  Gospels  from  these."  They  originated 
long  after  the  true  Gospels  were  written,  in  the  second  or 
third  century.  They  consist  of  idle  and  unfounded  tradi- 


58  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

tions  relating  to  the  infancy,  youth,  and  early  manhood  of 
our  Lord,  about  which  the  word  of  God  is  silent.  They  are 
below  contempt.  Sacred  scholars,  from  Irenaeus  down,  have 
denounced  them.45 

The  first  manuscript  version  of  the  whole  Bible  in  the 
English  language  was  made  by  John  Wiclif  A.  D.  1380. 
First  English  Its  circulation  was  limited  by  the  great  labor 

manuscript  of 

the  Bible.  and  expense  of  transcribing  it,  as  the  art  of 
printing  had  not  yet  begun  to  realize  the  Pentecostal  miracle 
of  tongues,  but  it  was  an  engine  of  wonderful  power.  It  was 
the  first  morning  light  ushering  in  the  full  day  of  the 
Reformation. 

The  first  printed  copy  of  any  portion  of  the  Scriptures  in 
edtofoifcJfthe  ^e  ^n»^sn  tongue  was  published  by  William 
giish!  m  Tyndale  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 

century.     Unable,   through  persecution,  to   accomplish  this 
work   at  home  he  went  to  Germany,  and  there  made  his 
version,  not  from  the  Latin  Vulgate,  as  his  pred- 

WSlliarn  Tyn- 

ecessors  had  done,  but  from  the  original  Greek 
and  Hebrew.  He  issued  first  the  New  Testament  and  after- 
ward the  Pentateuch.  About  the  commencement  of  the 

46  "It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,"  says  Westcott,  " to  remember  that  the 
canon  was  never  referred  in  the  first  ages  to  the  authority  of  fathers  or  councils. 
The  appeal  was  made  not  to  the  judgment  of  men,  but  to  that  of  Churches,  and 
of  those  particularly  which  were  most  nearly  interested  in  the  genuineness  of 
separate  writings.  And  thus  it  is  found  that  while  all  the  canonical  books  are 
supported  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all,  or  at  least  of  many,  Churches,  no 
more  than  isolated  opinions  of  private  men  can  be  brought  forward  in  support 
of  the  authority  of  any  other  writings,  for  the  New  Testament  Apocrypha  can 
hold  a  place  by  the  side  of  the  apostolic  books  only  so  long  as  our  view  is  lim- 
ited to  a  narrow  range.  A  comprehensive  survey  of  their  general  relations  shows 
the  real  interval  by  which  they  are  separated." — Canon  of  N.  T.y  p.  448. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  59 

year  1535  he  was  beguiled  from  the  city  of  Antwerp,  where 
he  had  found  protection,  by  an  English  emissary  of  the 
Roman  Church,  and  was  seized  and  imprisoned  in  the  castle 
of  Yilvorde,  near  the  city  of  Brussels.  After  a  wearisome 
imprisonment,  and  vain  efforts  to  secure  the  interposition 
of  the  English  court,  on  the  6th  of  October, 

Burning      of 

1536,  he  was  led  forth  to  be  burned.     His  last     Tyndale- 
words,  "  uttered  with  fervent  zeal  and  in  a  loud  voice,  were 
these :  '  Lord,  open  the  Icing  of  England's  eyes  /'  " 

For  ten  years  he  had  been  an  exile  from  his  home,  suffer- 
ing in  a  foreign  land,  from  poverty  and  persecution,  distresses 
that  only  the  Christian  faith  can  enable  a  man  to  endure,  and 
finally  gave  his  body  to  be  burned,  that  he  might  bestow 
upon  all  speaking  his  native  tongue  the  pure  written  word 
of  God.  Such  a  result,  however,  was  worth  all  it  cost :  he 
"  received  his  reward."  "  His  occupation  in  this  earth," 
says  Froude,  "was  gone.  His  eyes  saw  the  salvation  for 
which  he  had  longed,  and  he  might  depart  to  his  place." 46 

Soon  after  Tyndale  was  thrown  into  prison  an  edition  of 
the  entire  Bible,  containing  the  portions  previously  published 
by  him,  and  probably  completed  from  his  manuscripts,  was 
commenced  by  his  friend  and  fellow-exile,  John  John  Rogers 

publishes   his 

Rogers,  and  was  published  in  1537  under  the  $$™  ° 
assumed  name  of  Thomas  Mathew,  and  was  hence  called 
Maihevfs  Bible.  But  the  editor  of  it  claimed  for  his  friend 
its  authorship  by  inserting  his  initials  in  ornamental  letters 
(W.  T.)  at  the  close  of  the  Old  Testament.  Of  the  New 
Testament  there  could  be  no  doubt  as  to  its  origin,  as  it  had 
«•  History  of  England,  vol.  ill,  p.  8T. 


60  THE  WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED. 

long  since  been  published.47  The  editor  discloses  himself  by 
appending  his  initials  (J.  R.)  at  the  close  of  a  preliminary 
exhortation  to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

So  great  a  change  had  been  produced  in  influential  quar- 
ters in  England  during  these  memorable  years  that  Lord 
Cromwell,  who  was  prime  minister  of  England,  and  also 
"  vicegerent "  of  King  Henry  YHI.  in  all  ecclesiastical  mat- 
ters, together  with  Archbishop  Cranmer,  persuaded  the  king, 
before  the  first  edition  of  Tyndale's  Bible  was  exhausted,  to 
obtain  from  Francis  I,  of  France,  permission  to 

Coverdale's 

print  an  edition  of  the  English  Bible  in  Paris,  as 
the  work  could  be  better  done  there  than  in  England. 
About  the  time  of  Tyndale's  imprisonment,  according  to 
Froude,  but  two  years  later,  according  to  previous  authori- 
ties, Miles  Coverdale,  a  member  of  the  same  Cambridge 
circle  which  had  given  birth  to  Cranmer,  to  Latimer,  to 
Barnes,  and  to  the  Scotch  Wishart,  silently  went  abroad  with 
a  license  from  Cromwell,  and,  with  Tyndale's  help,  collected 
and  edited  the  various  books  of  Scripture.48  As  the  Inquisi- 
tion stopped  their  work  in  Paris,  Cromwell  ordered  his 
agents  to  bring  the  types  and  presses,  and  even  the  French 
printers,  to  England.  In  1536,  according  to  Froude,  it  was 
published  in  London,  was  dedicated  to  Henry  VIII.,  and  the 
clergy  were  ordered  not  only  to  permit,  but  to  exhort  and 
encourage  all  men  to  resort  to  it  and  read.  "  In  this  act," 
says  the  eloquent  historian  whose  dates  we  have  followed, 
"was  laid  the  foundation-stone  on  which  the  whole  later 

*7  Popular  History  of  the  English  Bible,  by  Mrs.  H.  C.  Conant. 
48  Fronde's  History  of  England,  vol.  ill. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  61 

history  of  England,  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical,  has  been 
reared."  Of  the  effect  of  its  publication  upon  the  people, 
Strype,  in  his  "Life  of  Cranmer,"  says,  it  was  a  jubilee  among 
the  poor  of  England  when,  for  the  first  time  in  the  national 
history,  they  could  listen  from  Sabbath  to  Sab-  Effect  of  the 

Bublication  of 
.v       v^    „„«„„ ^    &— *    v. a-    —    —        tie  Bible. 

Gospel "  without  the  fear  of  prisons,  the  scourge,  and  the 
stake.  "  It  was  wonderful,"  he  says,  "to  see  with  what  joy 
this  book  of  God  was  received,  not  only  among  the  learneder 
sort,  and  those  that  were  noted  for  lovers  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, but  generally  all  England  over,  among  all  the  vulgar 
and  common  people,  and  with  what  greediness  God's  word 
was  read,  and  what  resort  to  places  where  the  reading 
of  it  was.  Everybody  that  could  bought  the  book  and 
busily  read  it,  or  got  others  to  read  it  to  them  if  they  could 
not  themselves,  and  divers  more  elderly  people  learned  to 
read  on  purpose.  And  even  little  boys  flocked  among  the 
rest  to  hear  portions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  read?"  What  a 
blessed  preparation  was  this  for  the  bloody  persecutions  that 
afterward  tried  their  faith  in  God's  written  word ! 

Of  this  version  of  the  Bible  Froude  says  :  "  Though  since 
that  time  it  has  been  many  times  revised  and  altered,  we 
may  say  that  it  is  substantially  the  Bible  with  which  we  are 
all  familiar.  The  peculiar  genius — if  such  a  word  may  \y 
permitted — which  breathes  through  it,  the  mingled  tender- 
ness and  majesty,  the  Saxon  simplicity,  the  pre-  Froude  upon 
tornatural  grandeur,  unequaled,  unapproached  in 
the  attempted  improvements  of  modern  scholars;  all  are 
here,  and  bear  the  impress  of  the  mind  of  one  man,  William 


62  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Tyndale.  Lying  while  engaged  in  that  great  office  under  the 
shadow  of  death,  the  sword  above  his  head  and  ready  at  any 
moment  to  fall,  he  worked  under  circumstances  alone,  per- 
haps, truly  worthy  of  the  task  which  was  laid  upon  him ;  his 
spirit,  as  it  were,  divorced  from  the  world,  moved  in  a  purer 
element  than  common  air."  49 

By  the  commencement  of  the  next  century  numerous  edi- 
tions of  the  Bible  had  been  made.     Even  the  Romanists, 
finding  that  they  could  not  put  a  stop  to  the  circulation  of 
the  Scriptures  in  the  language  of  the  people,  felt 

The.  Douay 

it  necessary  to  have  a  version  of  their  own.  In 
1582  they  issued  the  New  Testament  at  Rheims,  and  in 
1610  the  Old  Testament  at  Douay.  This  forms  the  famous 
Douay  edition  of  the  Bible,  a  fine  version  in  some  respects, 
but  with  its  daring  changes  to  meet  the  requisitions  of  a 
fallen  Church. 

Martin  Luther,  the  great  German  Reformer,  who  was  born 
•  in  1483  and  died  in  1546,  has  been  called  the 

Martin  Luther. 

father  of  modern  biblical  interpretation,  for  he 
taught  by  precept  and  example  that  the  Bible  in  the  original 
tongues  is  final  authority  in  all  religious  questions,  and  thai 
private  judgment,  and  not  the  decision  of  councils,  is  to  be 
allowed  to  determine  its  sense.  He  insisted  with  charac- 
Fatherofbib-  teristic  earnestness  upon  a  grammatical  and 

Heal  interpre- 
tation, philological  mode  of  interpretation  of  the  lan- 
guage of  Scripture,  rather  than  bending  the  word  of  Gcd  to 
the   preconceived    opinions   and   theories  of  any  religious 
schools.     All  the  success  that  has  since  been  secured  in  the 

«  Fronde,  vol.  iii,  p.  87. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED?  *  63 

investigation  of  the  exact  meaning  of  the  sacred  records  has 
arisen  from  following  the  example  which  he  set  in  this 
regard.  The  noblest  work  of  this  noble  man  was  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  into  the  German  language.50  The 
study  of  the  Bible  was  a  life-long  passion  with  him.  "  "Were 
I  but  a  great  poet,"  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  "I  would 
write  a  magnificent  poem  on  the  utility  and  efficacy  of  the 
divine  word."  "  His  judgment  on  the  different  books  of  the 
Bible,"  Westcott  remarks,  "  as  given  in  detail  in  his  prefaces, 
are  so  full  of  life,  and  so  characteristic  of  the  man,  that  they 
can  never  lose  their  interest ;  and,  as  a  whole,  they  form  an 
important  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  Bible."  51 

The  present  version  of  the  English  Bible  was  commenced 
in  1607  and  completed  in  1611.  although  many 

Authorized 

small   changes   and    improvements    have   been       version. 
made  in  the  text  in  subsequent  editions.     It  was  undertaken 
in  the  reign  of  James  I.  upon  the  recommendation  of  Dr. 
Reynolds,  an  influential  clergyman  and  bishop  of     Executed  by 

forty-seven 

Norwich,  of  Puritan  sympathies.  By  the  king's  learned  men. 
command  forty-seven  learned  men  entered  upon  the  execution 
of  the  work.  They  were  divided  into  six  companies,  two  of 
which  sat  at  Westminster,  two  at  Oxford,  and  two  at  Cam- 
bridge. All  previous  editions,  with  all  available  manuscripts 
of  original  versions,  were*  before  them.  They  followed  as 
closely  as  the  authorities  they  consulted  would  admit,  by 
command,  the  edition  then  in  use,  and  called  the  "  Bishop's 
Bible,"  because  Archbishop  Parker  had  supervised  its  prepa- 
ration. 
••  Kitto's  Biblical  Cyclopedia.  B1  The  Oanon  of  the  New  Testamont,  p.  429. 


64  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Of  the  result  of  their  labors  the  editor  of  the  "  Annotated 

Paragraph  Bible  "  remarks  :  "  It  would  be  too  much  to  affirm 

that  it  is  not  susceptible  of  improvement:  but 

Character  of 

our  version.  -  tg  generaj  excellence  is  attested  by  the  fact,  that 
with  all  the  diversities  of  opinion  on  religious  subjects,  and 
the  controversies  which  have  been  carried  on  between  differ- 
ent denominations  of  Christians  in  our  countiy,  all  have 
agreed  in  appealing  to  the  same  version,  and  none  have,  in 
any  matters  of  consequence,  objected  to  it." 

The  revival  of  letters  upon  the  introduction  of  the  art  of 
Effect  of  the     printing,  especially  the  quickening  influences  of 

discovery   of 

printing.  the  Reformation  and  the  influential  example  of 

Luther;  the  appeal  from  a  professedly  infallible  Church  to 
the  inspired  records  of  truth;  the  differences  of  doctrinal 
opinions  in  the  Reformed  Churches,  all  seeking  their  justifi- 
cation in  the  letter  of  Scripture ;  the  searching  examination 
given  to  the  mythical  fables,  forming  the  beginning  of  all 
profane  history ;  the  extraordinary  advances  made  in  all  the 
physical  sciences,  some  of  them  apparently  showing  dis- 
crepancies and  contradictions  in  the  statements  of  the  Bible ; 
altogether  turned  with  great  zeal  the  thoughts  and  studies 
of  scholars,  both  friendly  and  unfriendly,  to  the  original 
sources  of  the  records  of  a  divine  revelation.  Impelled  by 
the  two  strongest  of  human  passions,  hatred  and  love,  the 
Examination  work  has  been  going  on  until  the  present  day. 

of  the  original 

sources.  From  ancient  libraries,  institutions  of  learning, 

rabbinical  schools,  and  convents,  gathered  with  the  most 
persistent  and  patient  labor,  every  scrap  of  manuscript  con- 
taining the  whole  or  portions  of  the  various  versions  of  the 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  65 

Bible,  which  we  have  already  described,  has  been  examined 
and  collated;  every  site  of  the  occurrence  of  scriptural 
incidents  has  been  visited;  human  history  has  been  re- 
viewed ;  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt  and  the  sublime 
revelations  of  the  earth's  strata  have  been  made  to  yield 
up  their  long-hidden  secrets  in  these  extended  investiga- 
tions. When  this  sifting  and  exhausting  ex-  The  effect  of 

this     invest!- 

animation  of  the  received  Scriptures  com-  |fS.fea 
menced  many  good  men  looked  upon  it  with  anxiety,  fearing 
that  the  popular  confidence  in  the  genuineness  and  purity 
of  the  text  might  be  destroyed.  Their  fears  were  unfounded. 
The  Bible,  like  pure  gold,  only  shone  the  brighter  after  the 
fiery  trial.  "A  wonderful  divine  ordination" 

Those     fears 

says  Olshausen,  "has  preserved  it  to  us  without 
any  essential  injury  through  a  succession  of  dark  ages.  It  ex- 
erts at  the  present  day  upon  all  minds  receptive  of  its  spirit 
the  same  blessed,  sanctifying  influence  which  the  apostles 
claimed  for  it  eighteen  centuries  ago.  How,  then,  can  these 
sacred  books  suffer  from  careful  historical  inquiry  respecting 
their  origin  ?  Investigation  must  rather  serve  to  confirm 
and  fully  establish  belief  in  their  purity  and  genuineness."  5a 
When  the  learned  Professor  Bengel,  of  Tubingen,  announced 
the  fortv  thousand  various  readings  which  had 

Variations  >f 

been   obtained   from   the    different   manuscript     Bensel- 
copies  of  the  New  Testament  collated,  it  was  feared  at  first 
that  an  entirely  new  version  would  be  required ;  but  it  was 
found   upon   examination  that  the  sense  of  the   authorized 
edition  was  scarcely  altered  by  them  all ;  no  previously  held 

fia  Olshausen's  Commentaries,  TO!,  i,  p.  80. 
5 


66  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

or  contested  doctrine  was  affected  in  the  slightest  measure, 
and  only  one  important  passage,  the  well-known  seventh 
NO  doctrine  verse  °^  tlie  ^^  chapter  of  the  First  Epistle  of 

John,  relating  to  the  three  witnesses,  was  found 
to  be  sustained  by  so  few  original  versions  as  to  be  marked 
unreliable.  But  the  doctrine  of  the  triune  personality  of 
God  is  not  affected  by  the  loss  of  this  proof-text.  Upon  the 
result  of  these  careful  collations  of  original  authorities 
Olshausen  remarks :  "  Now  that  all  the  manuscripts  have 

been  read  and  accurately  collated,  there  is  no 

No       further 

further  occasion  for  fear  that  somewhere  or  other 
something  new  may  be  discovered  which  will  thrust  the  old, 
loved  Bible  aside."  B3  Some  of  these  "  various  readings," 
considered  of  the  most  value,  have  been  introduced  into  side 
columns  in  our  reference  Bibles,  and  sometimes,  although 
rarely,  they  shed  considerable  light  upon  the  text. 

Of   the   fifty   thousand  various    readings  which,    at   the 
The  nature  of    present  time  have  been  collected,  the  most  of 

these     varia- 
tions, them    are    simply    differences   in   orthography, 

punctuation,  or  a  change  in  a  particle,  as  and  for  also  ;  and 
in  the  tenses,  numbers,  and  cases  of  the  words.  Says  Prof. 
Norton,  in  his  work  upon  the  genuineness  of  the  Gospels : 
"  It  seems  strange  that  the  text  of  Shakspeare,  which  has 
Prof.  Norton  been  in  existence  less  than  two  hundred  and 

upon  the    va- 

[ngsf"  read"  fifty  years,  should  be  far  more  uncertain  and 
corrupt  than  that  of  the  New  Testament,  now  over  eighteen 
centuries  old,  during  nearly  fifteen  of  which  it  existed  only 
in  manuscript.  The  industry  of  collators  and  commentators 
63  Olshausen's  Commentaries,  vol.  i,  p.  80. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD   OPENED.  67 

indeed  has  collected  a  formidable  array  of  '  various  read- 
ings '  in  the  Greek  text  of  the  Scriptures,  but  the  number  of 
those  which  have  any  good  claim  to  be  received,  and  which 
also  seriously  affect  the  sense,  is  so  small  that  they  may 
almost  be  counted  upon  the  fingers.  "With  perhaps  a  dozen 
or  twenty  exceptions,  the  text  of  every  verse  in  the  New 
Testament  may  be  said  to  be  so  far  settled  by  the  general 
consent  of  scholars  that  any  dispute  as  to  its  meaning  must 
relate  rather  to  the  interpretation  of  the  words  than  to  any 
doubts  respecting  the  words  themselves.  But  in  every  one 
of  Shakspeare's  thirty-seven  plays  there  are  probably  a 
hundred  readings  still  in  dispute,  a  large  proportion  of  which 
materially  affect  the  meaning  of  the  passage  in  which  they 
occur." 

We  may,  then,  answer  the  question  with  confidence,  that 
we   have  in  our  English  Bibles  the  revelation 

Question  an 

of  God's  will  as  it  was  given  to  the  holy  men     swered- 
that  received  it. 


68  THE   WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 


CHAPTER    IY. 

INTEKPKETATION  :     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS. 

npHE  term  Tiermeneutics,  from  the  Greek  word   used  by 

-*~   the  apostle  Paul,  and  translated  the  "  interpretation  of 

tongues," l  is  the  title  used  to  designate  the 

Hermeneutics. 

science  or  art  of  interpretation. 

The  grand  office  of  biblical  interpretation  is  to  discover 
Office  of  bib-     the  exact  teaching  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 

lical  interpre- 
tation, words  uttered  by  inspired  men.     It  is  not  its 

province  to  inquire  how  far  any  preconceived  opinion  finds 
justification  in  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  but  simply  and  always 
"  what  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify." 2 
There  are  many  peculiarities  in  the  construction  and  char- 
peculiarities      ac^er  of  the  book  which  render  its  interpretation 

of  book  ren-         .,.,,,      ,.  ,  .,         ,  ,  ,,  , 

denng  its  in-      difhcult,  and  require  the  closest  and  most  careful 

terpretation 

study.  Its  first  publication  in  the  idioms  of 
tongues  foreign  to  our  own — its  constant  allusion  to  customs 
unfamiliar  to  our  days — its  singular  varieties  of  style,  histori- 
cal, poetical,  prophetical — its  sublime  supernatural  revelations 
of  truth  and  spiritual  life — all  together  make  it  a  volume 
which  study  can  never .  exhaust,  and  which  it  can  never  enter 
upon  without  the  most  enriching  results.3 

1 1  Cor.  xii,  10.  a  1  Peter  1,11. 

8  Dr.  Btowe  remarks  In  his  inaugural  address  upon  the  "  Interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures,"  when  he  entered  upon  his  duties  as  a  professor  at  Andover:  u  We 


THE  WORD  OF   GOD    OPEKED.  69 

If  one  should  ask  why  a  book  that  contains  truths  so  vital 
to  our  present  and  eternal  well-being  has  not 

Why  has  God 

been  given  to  man  in  a  style  so  clear  and  simple     to'™"o  dim- 
cult  of  corn- 
that  an  ordinary  mind  could  comprehend  it  upon     prehension  ? 

the  bare  reading,  and  why  it  should  be  given  to  him  as  an 

have  scarcely  anything  in  common  with  them  (the  Jewish  people)  except  a 
common  humanity,  and  the  same  Deity ;  a  common  depravity,  and  the  need  of 
the  same  method  of  salvation ;  and  it  is  precisely  because  we  have  these  most 
important  things  in  common  with  them  that  the  Bible  on  these  topics  is  so 
plain  and  intelligible  to  the  humble,  believing,  prayerful  inquirer.  We  have 
the  same  sun  and  moon  and  stars,  and  yet  we  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  the 
same  heavens  over  our  heads  or  the  same  earth  beneath  our  feet,  so  different 
were  their  skies  and  fields  and  forests  from  ours.  Instead  of  being  like  them 
in  habits  of  life  and  modes  of  thought,  our  inner  and  outer  life  is  as  wholly 
unlike  that  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  as  a  modern  cotton  factory  is  unlike 
Solomon's  temple,  and  the  difference  is  very  much  of  the  same  kind.  In 
the  application  of  science  and  art,  for  example,  to  the  uses  and  conven- 
iences of  life  they  were  infinitely  behind  us.  In  contrast  with  our  nu- 
merous facilities  for  journeying  and  transportation,  the  Hebrews  knew 
nothing  of  a  road  (1  Sam.  xxvii,  10)  as  we  understand  the  word  road; 
they  had  no  idea  of  any  such  thing  as  a  bridge,  and  there  is  but  one 
instance  in  the  whole  Hebrew  history  of  so  great  a  convenience  as  a  ferry- 
boat, and  that  was  in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  their  greatest  king,  and  is 
alluded  to  as  a  luxury  for  the  king's  household,  (2  Sam.  xix,  18.)  The  distafl 
for  spinning  and  the  loom  worked  by  hand  were  all  the  machinery  they  had 
for  manufacturing  cloth ;  of  sugar  and  coffee  and  tea  they  had  never  heard ;  hair 
combs  and  pocket  knives,  and  even  pockets,  were  quite  unknown  to  them; 
wheelbarrows  and  threshing  machines,  (their  wheat  was  trodden  out  by  oxen, 
or  beaten  out  by  sticks,)  steam-engines  and  carding  machines  and  nail  factories 
they  had  never  formed  an  idea  of;  paper  and  quills,  steel  pens  and  wafers,  they 
had  never  used ;  and  instead  of  our  stereotype  plates  and  power  presses,  striking 
off  a  whole  Bible  in  two  minutes,  they  had  no  way  of  making  books  but  by  a 
process  which  for  facility  and  speed  of  writing  was  very  much  like  engraving 
on  copperplate,  or  cutting  letters  on  a  tombstone.  Their  very  language  and 
their  mode  of  using  language  was  in  almost  everything  the  reverse  of  ours. 
Their  primitive  words  are  verbs  instead  of  nouns ;  they  gave  names  to  actions 
before  they  gave  names  to  things ;  their  books  begin  where  ours  end,  and  when 
we  read  their  writings  we  always  seem  to  ourselves  to  be  reading  backward. 
They  wrote  consonants  only,  and  had  no  use  for  vowels.  What  we  exDress 


70  THE  WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

unexplored  mine,  with  its  hidden  ^eins  of  gold  and  silver, 
long  eluding  the  sight  of  the  seeker  after  truth  ?  the  answer 
need  not  be,  reverently,  "Even  so,  Father,  for  so  it  seemed 
good  in  thy  sight,"  alone ;  but  other  reasons  at  once  suggest 
themselves  to  the  thoughtful  mind.  The  Bible  was  intended 
intended  to  to  be  a  study  for  man  for  all  time.  It  reveals 

be  a  study  for 

all  ages.  God.    Every  new  discovery  of  the  meaning  and 

force  of  revelation  is  a  fresh  revelation  of  some  aspect  of  the 
divine  character.  The  necessity  of  constant  study  holds 
every  generation  in  close  connection  with  the  divine  mind, 
and  becomes  the  medium  through  which  God  constantly 
communes  with  our  race. 

A  wonderful  analogy  we  notice  here  between  the  revela- 
tions of  God  in  the  natural  world  and  in  his  Scriptures. 
God  has  made  all  life  a  discipline.     All  our  per- 

Analogy  with 

human  life.          g(>nal  wantg  can  Qnly  be  SUpplied  fry  lakor  an(J 

care  and  thought,  and  even  faith,  a  process  which,  although 
it  is  wearisome,  is  wholesome,  for  it  is  the  great  school  in 
which  God  develops  and  trains  human  minds.  What  is  in- 

what  is  vital  dispensable  to  life  lies  near  to  us ;  but  its  corn- 
is  near  to  us. 

cSe".esc  forts  and  luxuries  are  to  be  sought  for  as  hidden 
treasures.  Every  year  man  is  discovering  by  study  some  new 
element  in  the  divine  economy  which  will  add  to  his  enjoy- 
ment. How  many  years  the  world  lived  without  a  knowl- 

directly  by  a  simple  noun,  they  often  designate  by  a  picture ;  as  for  example, 
the  pupil  of  the  eye,  because  it  always  reflects  a  little  image  of  the  person 
looking  into  it,  they  call  it  the  little  man,  the  eye's  daughter.  They  loved  to 
give  utterance  to  their  thoughts  in  symbols  and  in  types,  in  allegories  and 
parables  and  riddles,  and  all  their  literature  abounds  with  expedients  of  this 
k.\n&."—Eibliotkeca  Sttora,  1S£3,  p.  45. 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  71 

edge  of  the  hidden  powers  of  electricity  and  steam,  and  how 
long  men  have  walked  over  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  and 
near  mountains  of  coal  and  rivers  of  oil,  and  sailed  over  the 
most  precious  pearls  1  And  the  world  is  not  yet  exhausted, 
neither  will  it  be  until  it  is  refined  in  its  final  fires.4  Thus  is 
it  with  the  Scriptures.  Sufficient  relating  to  the 

This  is  true  of 

salvation  of  the  soul  to  lead  a  penitent  man  to  t 
forgiveness  and  to  the  door  of  heaven  can  be  found  in  all 
parts  of  Scripture,  and  he  that  runneth  may  read.  If  every 
portion  of  the  Bible  should  be  lost  but  the  fifteenth  chapter 
of  St.  Luke,  and  the  third  chapter  of  St.  John,  we  should  still 
have  the  whole  plan  of  salvation — the  love  of  God,  the  atone-, 
ment  of  Christ,  the  repenting  sinner,  and  the  changed  heart ; 
but  beyond  this  there  are  still  undiscovered  continents  of 
truth,  facilities  for  the  sanctification  of  human  life,  treasures 
of  unutterable  price  hidden  away  in  the  stores  of  revelation, 
not  to  mock  the  earnest  seeker,  but  to  reward  his  zeal  and 
add  to  his  spiritual  wealth.  The  prayer  offered 

Prater  of 

a  thousand  years  ago  still  lingers  upon  devout 

4  Says  the  author  of  Ecce  Dens, "  God's  first  book,  the  book  of  nature,  apparently 
leaves  much  of  life  unprovided  for ;  yet  as  men  acquire  skill  to  turn  over  the 
ponderous  pages  they  find  that  every  want  has  been  anticipated.  Adam  would 
hardly  know  the  world  of  which  he  was  the  first  occupant,  yet  the  primal 
forces  and  characteristics  of  nature  are  just  the  same  as  when  he  kept  the  gar- 
den of  Eden.  Modern  civilization  can  hardly  understand  how  men  could  sub- 
sist in  ancient  times,  yet  the  earth  abideth  forever  without  appendix  or  sup- 
plement. What  was  wanting  was  the  faculty  of  interpretation.  Men  saw  tho 
water,  but  could  not  interpret  it  into  steam ;  they  saw  the  lightning,  but  mis- 
took it  for  an  enemy ;  they  saw  the  sun,  but  could  not  fully  interpret  all  he 
signified  by  the  eloquence  of  light.  The  human  power  of  interpretation  grows, 
yet  after  it  has  grown  it  often  forgets  both  the  process  and  the  fact.  The  vol- 
ume of  nature  is  precisely  to-day  as  God  published  it,  but  the  latter  readers  ar« 
more  sharp-sighted  and  inquisitive  than  the  former." — Page  24. 


72  THE  WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

lips :  "  Open  them  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous 
things  ont  of  thy  law."  6 

Dr.  Schaff,  remarking  upon  the  New  Testament  and  its  lan- 
guage, says  that  the  latter  is  the  Macedonian  Greek  as  spoken 
by  the  Jews  of  the  dispersion  in  the  time  of  Christ,  and  adds : 
"  The  most  beautiful  language  of  heathendom  and  the  ven- 
erable language  of  the  Jews  are  here  combined,  baptized  with 
Dr.  Schaff  on  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  made  the  picture 

lanpuapre  and 

the  ™ibier.  °f  °f  silver  for  the  golden  apple  of  the  eternal  truth 
of  the  Gospel.  And,  indeed,  the  style  of  the  Bible  in  general 
is  singularly  adapted  to  men  of  every  class  and  grade  of 
culture,  affording  the  child  the  simple  nourishment  for  its 
religious  wants,  and  the  profoundest  thinker  inexhaustible 
matter  of  study,  The  Bible  is  not  simply  a  popular  book, 
but  a  book  of  all  nations,  and  for  all  societies,  classes,  and 
conditions  of  men."  6 

Locke  has  well  said :  "  Men  have  reason  to  be  well  satisfied 
Locke  upon  with  what  God  has  done  for  them,  since  he  has 

this  feature  of 

omy?e  ec°n"  given  whatever  is  necessary  for  convenience  of 
life  and  information  of  virtue,  and  has  put  within  their  reach, 
if  they  are  willing  to  make  search — to  which,  however,  he 
will  not  compel  them — a  comfortable  provision  for  this  life, 
and  the  way  that  leads  to  a  better.  We  shall  not  have  much 
need  to  complain  of  the  narrowness  of  our  minds  if  we  will 
employ  them  about  what  may  be  of  use  to  us ;  and  it  will  be 
an  unpardonable  as  well  as  childish  peevishness  if  we  under- 
value the  advantages  of  our  knowledge,  and  neglect  to  improve 
it  because  there  are  some  things  that  are  set  out  of  its  reach." 

•  Psalm  cxix,  18.  •  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  vol.  i,  p.  93. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  73 

"  Has  not  the  natural  world,"  says  Goulburn,7  "  wondrous 
things,  many  and  inexhaustible — wonders  on  a  large  scale, 

and  wonders  on  a  small  ?     First,  it  has  beautiful     Nature  as  ap- 
parent to  the 
landscapes,  which  it  asks  no  effort  to  admire,     eye- 

which  we  have  only  to  open  our  eyes  and  behold.  And, 
though  landscapes  vary  in  beauty,  there  are  perhaps  fewer 
than  we  imagine  in  which  a  contemplative  eye  can  discover 
nothing  of  the  beautiful.  As  it  is  with  Scripture,  so  it  is 
with  nature ;  familiarity  with  it  has  a  tendency  to  blunt  our 
perceptions  of  its  beauty.  It  does  not  follow  from  hence 
that  the  portions  of  nature  which  lie  in  our  immediate 
vicinity  contain  no  wonders.  Wonders  there  may  be  in 
abundance,  but  they  only  reveal  themselves  to  those  who  are 

at  the  pains  of  investigating  them.     As  the  rich     wonders  hid- 
den      under 
man  lazily  rolls  along  in  his  carriage,  and  indo-     our  feet. 

lently  complains  of  the  tameness  of  the  landscape,  there  may 
be  wondrous  things  in  the  geological  strata  beneath  his  feet : 
fossil  animals ;  evidences  of  volcanic  agency.  There  may  be 
gold  dust  in  the  streams  ;  nay,  as  at  Cracow,  it  may  happen 
that  in  the  earth's  bowels  there  shall  be  lofty  vaulted  palaces 
of  rock  salt,  which  appear  by  the  light  of  flambeaux  like  so 
many  crystals,  or  precious  stones  of  various  colors,  casting  a 
luster  which  the  eye  can  scarcely  bear.  A  slight  amount  of 
research  and  exertion  would  reach  and  discover  these  things, 
and  would  turn  a  residence  in  an  otherwise  tame  country 
in^o  a  perpetual  feast  of  cuiiosity.  Then  there  Wonder  of 
are  the  wonders  to  which  the  telescope  opens  the  lelescope- 
our  eyes.  It  reveals  to  us  worlds  lit  up  by  a  common  lamp 

7  Devotional  Study  of  the  Scriptures,  page  47. 


74  THE   WORD    OF    GOD   OPENED. 

with  our  own,  several  of  them  larger  than  our  earth  ;  and 
numbers  of  flaming  balls  scattered  in  brilliant  profusion  over 
the  midnight  sky,  which,  perchance,  serve  as  suns  of  other 
systems.  The  astronomer  will  patiently  watch  for  hours,  ex- 
posed to  the  night-dews  and  the  cold,  to  ascertain  the  truth 
in  regard  to  some  phenomenon  of  the  heavens.  There  are  the 
Wonders  of  no  less  marvelous  wonders  of  the  microscope.  By 

the       micro- 
scope, this  is  revealed  to  us  a  plurality  of  worlds  in  the 

most  contracted  limits,  as  the  telescope  had  revealed  to  us  a 
plurality  in  the  vast  reaches  of  space.  All  this  admits  of  a 
close  application  to  the  Scriptures.  The  only  difference  is  that 
These  iiius-  the  wondrous  things  of  God's  law  are  greater 

trations     ap- 

ture.to  5Cnp~  and  more  marvelous  by  far  than  anything  which 
meets  us  in  his  works,  for  we  are  told  that  he  has  magnified 
his  word  above  all  his  name,  that  is,  above  everything  con- 
nected with  him.  Scripture  has  its  more  interesting  and  less 
interesting  districts  as  they  appear  upon  the  surface.  It  has 
its  sublime  chapters  upon  the  creation,  its  unequaled  psalms, 
and  its  soul-moving  parables.  It  has,  also,  its  less  imposing 
surfaces,  its  flats  and  levels,  its  apparent  wastes.  It  has  its 
long  genealogical  chapters,  with  no  biographical  sketches  to 
enlighten  them.  It  has  its  protracted  ceremonial  details, 
and  it  has  its  tangled  brushwood  and  wild  jungles  in  the 
perplexities  which  some  of  the  prophetical  writings  seem  to 
present,  and  which  perhaps  are  never  designed  to  be  wholly 
cleared.  It  does  not  follow  that  these  less  interesting  pas- 
R;ch  mines  sages  contain  nothing  beneath  the  surface  worthy 

beneath     the 

surface.  of  research,  and  which  will   abundantly  repay 

investigation.    The  richest  mines  have  been  found  beneath  the 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  75 

most  sterile  and  desolate  tracts  of  earth.  Every  part  of 
Scripture  contains  some  lesson  that  subserves  a  useful  pur- 
pose in  the  system  of  divine  grace.  They  may  lie  hidden  very 
deeply  with  the  design  of  exciting  curiosity  and  research. 
*  It  is  the  glory  of  God  to  conceal  a  thing ;  but  the  honor  of 
kings  is  to  search  out  a  matter.' " 

Who  does  not  see  at  once  that  this  great  variety,  and  often 

difficulty,  and  sometimes   mystery,  add  to   the     Add   to  at- 
tractiveness 
attractiveness   of    Scripture,   and   occasion  the      of  scripture. 

necessity  for  that  study  and  thought,  without  which  its 
truths  would  avail  us  but  little  ?  An  ordinary  author  is  soon 
exhausted,  and  loses  his  power  over  us ;  but  the  Bible  never, 
if  thoughtfully  read.8  Without  mental  exertion  a  man  may 

8  Abundant  testimony  of  the  power  of  the  Scriptures  to  reward  with 
the  highest  form  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  enjoyment  their  careful  and 
protracted  study  might  be  given.  At  a  late  Bible  anniversary  Eev.  Dr. 
Peabody,  preacher  and  pastor  at  Harvard  College,  remarked :  "  I  rejoice 
that  we  have  a  record  of  revelation  that  demands  study,  and  a  life-long 
study.  It  is  one  of  the  marks  of  the  divine  inspiration  which  fills  this 
book,  that  its  study  demands,  and  crowns,  and  exceeds  a  life-time.  If  1 
had  my  life  to  live  over  again,  I  would  be  willing  to  devote  the  solid 
portion  of  my  days  to  the  study  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  I  should  feel  that 
in  these  alone  there  is  work  enough  and  joy  enough  for  a  life-long  scholar- 
ship." And  he  adds,  "  Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  that  as  the  sweetest  pastures 
are  found  among  the  rocks,  so  among  those  crags  and  cliffs  in  which  is 
the  hiding  of  the  divine  wisdom,  among  the  least  intelligible  portions  of  tho 
divine  word,  are  found  scattered  those  sweet  and  precious  sentences  on  which 
the  devout  feed,  and  which  have  been  the  greatest  of  boons  to  generation  after 
generation  of  the  saints.  One  of  the  surest  tokens  to  my  mind  of  the  divina 
inspiration  of  this  book  is  the  fact  that  strewn  all  over  it  are  those  passages  of 
concentratedt  condensed  power,  in  which  the  sacred  writers  put  into  half  a 
dozen  words  what  would  be  weakly  expressed  in  half  a  dozen  pages  or  chapters.1' 

"Where  is  the  uninspired  book,"  writes  the  late  venerable  Dr.  William 
Marsh,  "  of  which  one  can  say,  '  I  never  tire  of  reading  it  T  There  is  a  book 
which  I  think  I  must  have  read  fifty  times,  and  I  have  not  done  with  it  yet. 
In  a  sense.  I  doubt  whether  I  shall  have  done  with  it  in  time,  for  it  is  in  cter 


76  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

admire   Scripture,  even  as  without  bodily  exertion  lie  may 
Man  must  ex-     aclmire  nature.     If,  however,  he  would  profit  by 

ert  himself  to  ,  , 

be  able  to  use     nature's  resources,  he  must  exert  himself,  dig- 

the  resources 

ging  the  well,  felling  the  timber,  building  the 
house,  sinking  the  mine ;  so  he  must  operate  upon  the  crude 
material  of  Scripture,  and  look  into  its  secret  recesses  with 
the  energy  and  perseverance  that  he  puts  forth  to  meet  Ms 
illustration  of  bodily  wants.  In  the  Old  Testament  we  read 

truth    hidden 

in  scripture.      what    seems   to   be   only  a  merciful   provision 
for  a  patient  burden-bearing  beast :  "  Thou  shalt  not  muz- 

nity  we  shall  know  fully  its  wondrous  contents."  The  eminent  Dr.  Constan- 
tino Tischendorf,  still  blessing  the  Church  with  his  untiring  labors,  has 
employed  all  his  erudition,  and  all  his  time  for  more  than  twenty  years,  upon 
the  textual  study  of  the  New  Testament.  "When  he  discovered,  after  extraor- 
dinary endurance  and  perseverance,  the  ancient  manuscript  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, some  one  thousand  five  hundred  years  old,  in  the  convent  of  Mount 
Sinai,  he  hurried  to  his  chamber,  that,  as  he  said,  "  he  might  give  way  to  the 
transports  of  joy  which  he  felt."  "  I  knew  that  I  held  in  my  hand,11  he  adds, 
"  the  most  precious  biblical  treasure  in  existence ;  a  document  whose  age  and 
importance  exceeded  that  of  all  the  manuscripts  which  I  had  ever  examined 
during  twenty  years'  ftiudy  of  the  subject.  I  cannot  now,  I  confess,  recall  all 
the  emotions  which  I  felt  in  that  exciting  moment  with  such  a  diamond  in  my 
possession.  Though  my  lamp  was  dim,  and  the  night  cold,  I  sat  down  at  onco 
to  transcribe  the  '  Epistle  of  Barnabas,1 "  which  was  bound  up  with  this  edition, 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  of  invaluable  service  in  the  argument  demonstra- 
ting the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  our  present  New  Testament  canon. 
Honors  from  crowned  heads  and  ancient  universities,  and  even  from  Pius  IX. 
himself,  fell  thickly  upon  him  when  his  great  work  of  publishing  a  fac-similo 
of  the  manuscripts  was  completed.  But  he  mentions  with  undisguised  prido 
his  greater  satisfaction  with  the  remark  of  an  old  man,  "  himself  of  the  high- 
est distinction  for  learning :"  "  I  would  rather  have  discovered  this  Sinaitic 
manuscript  than  the  koh-i-noor  of  the  queen  of  England.11  How  noble  his 
remark :  "  That  which  I  think  more  highly  of  than  all  these  flattering  distinc- 
tions is  the  conviction  that  Providence  has  given  to  our  age,  in  which  attacks 
on  Christianity  are  so  common,  the  Sinaitic  Bible,  to  be  to  us  a  full  and  clear 
light  as  to  what  is  the  word  written  by  God,  and  to  assist  us  in  defending  the 
truth  by  establishing  its  authentic  form.11 


THE  WOED    OF   GOD    OPENED.  77 

zle  the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn.""  This 
truth  it  certainly  teaches,  but  within  its  folds  we  are 
taught  by  an  inspired  apostle  is  wrapped  up  an  eternal 
principle  of  equity  —  that  "the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his 
]  eward."  10 

The  Bible  constantly  presents  general  principles,  absolute 
commandments,  and  living  examples;  but  it  never  applies 
these  principles  to  human  actions  as  recorded  upon  its  pages. 
This  is  left  to  the  enlightened  conscience  and 

Man  must  ap- 

thoughtful  judgment  of  the  reader.  It  is  His  ply  ^incii>les- 
will  that  we  should  meditate  upon  all  Scripture,  and  make 
ourselves  their  moral  application.  The  Bible  records  the 
pious  obedience  and  simple  and  singular  faith  of  Noah,  but 
makes  no  comment  upon  it ;  and  it  relates  the  niustratjon  Of 
story  of  his  shame  when  overcome  by  his  appe-  acter'without 

application  of 

tite,  without  a  note  of  warning.  Abraham  is  moral- 
sometimes  called  the  friend  of  God,  and  is  styled  in  Scripture 
the  "  father  of  them  that  believe."  His  marvelous  simplicity 
of  character  and  unfaltering  trust  in  God  are  fully  described 
in  the  sacred  word,  and,  without  note  or  comment  or  excuse, 
the  stories  of  his  deceit  are  also  written  out.  God's  abhor- 
rence of  Jacob's  falsehood  is  not  stated  in  the  sacred  narra- 
tive, neither  his  judgment  as  to  a  plurality  of  wives,  it  is  left 
to  be  gathered  from  the  after-fortunes  of  the  patriarch,  the 
retributions  that  fell  upon  him  in  his  fears  of  Esau,  and  in 
his  overwhelming  domestic  troubles.  It  was  only  in  his 
later  years  that  his  life  was  gilded  with  gleams  of  comfort.11 
David  is  said,  without  reservation,  to  be  a  "  man  after  God's 
8  Deuteronomy  xxv,  4.  10 1  Timothy  v,  18.  ll  Goulburn. 


78  THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

own  heart ;" 12  but  what  frightful  sins  the  hand  of  inspiration, 
David  ndh'  w^hout  hesitation,  records  against  him.  God 
leaves  the  strange  extremes  of  his  life  for  us  to 
reconcile.  Not  one  word  of  apology  does  he  offer.  David  in 
Scripture  is  not  presented  as  a  saint,  not  even- when  judged 
by  the  defective  standard  of  the  times  in  which  he  lived. 
As  compared  with  Saul,  who  refused  to  carry  out  God's  com- 
mands, he  was  a  chosen,  faithful,  and  successful  instrument ; 
in  this  respect  simply  he  was  after  God's  heart.  His  sins 
were  shocking,  and  the  temporal  retribution  that  followed 
fearful.  His  humility,  his  penitence,  and  his  trust  were  as 
marvelous  as  his  human  weaknesses.  In  recording  the  end 
of  Judas,  where  a  human  writer  could  hardly  have 

Judas. 

failed  to  remark  upon  the  added  guilt  of  suicide 
and  the  steps  which  led  to  it,  the  reader  is  left  to  draw  his 
own  lessons  as  to  the  awful  risk  of  sinning  against  high 
privileges,  and  constantly  violating  the  convictions  of  con- 
science. 

All  these  lessons  require  thought  and  study  to  elicit. 

The  distinction  between  simple  attention  to  the  literal 
Distinction  word  of  inspiration  and  careful  thought  and 
STon^ami  study  upon  the  truth  which  the  Holy  Spirit 

thought  illus- 

seeks  to  teach  us  by  it  has  been  happily  illustrated 
by  Dr.  Goulburn.  Attention  to  any  book  or  discourse  is  that 
which  serves,  and  which  is  necessary  to  enable  us  to  retain 
the  various  points  it  sets  forth  in  our  memory.  For  example, 
we  read  the  beautiful  narrative  of  the  Syrophoenician  moth- 
er's appeal  to  our  Lord  in  behalf  of  her  daughter.  Attention, 
"  1  Sam.  xiii,  14. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED.  79 

exercised  while  that  story  is  read,  will  enable  us  to  answer 
the  following  questions :  Where  was  our  Lord  when  this 
event  happened  ?  (It  is  said  he  was  in  the  coasts  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon.)  Of  what  plague  did  the  woman  entreat  our 
Lord  to  make  her  daughter  whole  ?  (It  is  said  she  was 
grievously  vexed  with  a  devil.)  How  did  he  at  first  receive 
her  petition  ?  (He  answered  her  not  a  word.)  How  did  tho 
disciples  beg  him  to  act  ?  (They  besought  him,  saying,  Send 
her  away,  for  she  crieth  after  us.)  Suppose  some  one  has 
read  the  narrative,  or  has  heard  it  read  in  such  a  manner 
that,  being  afterward  asked  the  above  questions,  he  has 
been  able  to  answer  them  all  correctly,  that  person  has 
exercised  attention,  and  this  is  well ;  but  it  is  not  a  profiting 
by  the  Scriptures ;  it  is  only  an  essential  process  preliminary 
to  the  profiting  ~by  them.  The  knowledge  of  the  points  of  the 
story,  which  is  secured  by  attention,  is  precisely  the  sort  of 

knowledge  with  which  we   aim   at  filling  the    Failure  in  Sun- 
day-school in- 
minds  of  children  in  our  Sunday-schools.     And    structioa, 

it  is  to  be  feared  that  we  are  too  apt  to  plume  ourselves  on 
the  large  stock  of  this  sort  of  knowledge  which  a  child  of 
average  intelligence  will  in  a  short  time  acquire.  We  forget 
that  except  as  an  essential  preliminary  to  a  far  deeper  and 
more  important  process,  the  knowledge  of  scriptural  facts  is 
absolutely  worth  nothing. 

Let  us  now  consider  wrhat  thought  is,  as  distinct  from 
attention. 

A  lower  form  of  thought,  which  might  operate  upon  the 
difficulties  of  the  narrative,  might  awaken  a  speculative  in- 
terest. Thus  it  might  occur  to  one's  mind  that  at  this  period 


80  THE  WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

our  Lord  is  represented  as  being  out  of  the  limits  of  Palestine, 
(in  the  coasts  of  Tyre  and  Sidon.)  and  that  at 

Speculative          v 

the  same  time  there  were  other  scriptural  consid- 
erations leading  us  to  believe  that  he  never  was  out  of  those 
limits,  the  Lord  being  a  minister  to  the  circumcision,  and 
sent  only  to  the  "lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel;"  we  might 
seek  the  solution  of  the  difficulty  by  inquiring  whether  the 
words  might  not  be  interpreted  as  meaning  only  the  borders 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  (a  district  immediately  adjoining  this 
Gentile  country.)  This  would  be  a  form  of  speculative 
thought,  which  forms  largely  the  field  of  inquiry  among 
critical  commentaries. 

But  there  is  a  higher  form  of  thought  requisite  to  secure 
our  obtaining  from  the  Holy   Scriptures  that 

Devotional 

nourishment  which  we  need.  It  brings  into 
exercise  not  the  speculative  faculty,  nor  curiosity  in  any 
form  or  shape,  but  those  moral  faculties  which  the  hum- 
blest mind  has  in  common  with  the  philosopher — the  heart, 
the  conscience,  and  the  will.  Devotional  or  practical  thought 
will  ask,  Why  did  our  Lord,  so  full  of  tenderness  and  com- 
passion, who  seems  to  have  traveled  into  this  far  corner  of 
Palestine  for  the  sole  purpose  of  giving  this  woman  an  op- 
portunity of  access  to  him,  meet  her  with  perfect  silence,  in 
the  first  instance,  and  in  the  second  with  the  discouragement 
of  rough,  hard  words  ?  Why  ?  but  because  he  designs  to 
teach  me  that  if  he  does  not  immediately  answer  my  prayers 
on  the  first  application  it  is  not  that  he  does  not  hear  them ; 
it  is  to  draw  me  on  by  apparent  denial  to  greater  earnestness 
and  importunity  in  prayer,  and  to  impress  upon  my  heart 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  81 

this  lesson  of  lessons,  that  even  if  after  earnest  prayer  tilings 
seem  to  go  wrong,  and  my  wishes  seein  to  be  thwarted,  he 
has  still  a  heart  of  love  toward  me  beneath  this  disguise  of 
stern  severity. 

"Judge  not  the  Lord  by  feeble  sense, 

But  trust  him  for  his  grace ; 
Behind  a  frowning  providence 

lie  hides  a  smiling  face." 

I  understand  now  the  meaning  of  the  severe  cross  which  I 
sometimes  meet  when  I  have  earnestly  devoted  Meaning  of 

discourage- 

rnyself  to  God's  service.  Providence  seemed  to  ments. 
be  thwarting  me  and  discouraging  me  when  engaged  in 
prosecuting  my  religious  duties;  but  this  Scripture,  as  the 
voice  of  the  Master,  speaks  to  me  and  says,  "  Persevere ;  pray 
oftener  and  more  earnestly ;  never  abandon  the  narrow  path 
of  duty,  however  many  discouragements  are  in  it,  and  it  shall 
be  unto  thee  according  to  thy  faith."  And  so,  through  the 
patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures,  I  have  hope. 

Thus  we  see  how  devotional  thought  discovers  in  the 
revealed  word  the  very  marrow  of  the  Gospel,     Devotional 

thought  finds 

and  makes  it  to  be  the  food  and  comfort  of  the  SfKBi01 
soul. 

I.  It  is  of  importance  that  the  Bible  should  be  studied  in 
order  to  be  properly  interpreted  as  a  whole  or  a     The  whole  Bi- 

ble  to  be  stud- 
Unit.     It  contains  but  one  revelation,  and  like  a     ied. 

perfect  body,  every  member  has  some  vital  relation  to  the 
whole  frame.  Christ  is  revealed  in  it  from  the  commence- 
ment to  the  close.  He  comes  first  in  promise,  then  in  the 

ceremonial  law,  always  in  providential  history,  now  in  the 

6 


82  THE   WORD    OF    GOD   OPENED. 

strains  of  holy  hymns,  now  in  the  glowing  numbers  of  proph* 
Christ  in  th      ec^'  a^  ^ie  aPP°^n^e(l  time  is  made  manifest  in 

whole  Bible.        the  ^^   and    ^   then  held    forth   iQ   ^    dogQ 

of  the  canon  as  the  expected  triumphant  King  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven.13    The  custom  of  spending  so  long  a  period 

J3  As  an  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  the  whole  revelation  maybe 
made  to  pour  its  light  upon  one  truth,  we  append  the  response  of  two  teachers 
at  a  late  normal  convention  to  the  question  as  to  the  manner  of  showing  the 
connection  between  the  Passover  and  Christ's  great  sacrifice  for  sin:  "  C.  I  think  I 
should  call  the  attention  of  the  class  first  to  Genesis  iv,  3-5,  'And  Cain  brought  of 
the  fruit  of  the  ground  an  offering  unto  the  Lord.  And  Abel,  he  also  brought  of 
the  firstlings  of  his  flock  and  of  the  fat  thereof.  And  the  Lord  had  respect  unto 
Abel  and  to  his  offering :  but  unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering  he  had  not  respect.' 
And  I  should  tell  my  class  that  here  was  proof  that  a  Lamb  of  God  was  chosen 
from  the  foundation  of  tho  world,  since  here  a  lamb  is  revealed  as  the  only 
acceptable  offering  for  sin ;  and  that  this  lamb  was  a  type  of  Christ.  I  should 
then  ask  them  to  turn  to  Genesis  xxii,  7,  where  we  find  in  Abraham's  offering 
of  his  son  Isaac  the  wonderful  connection  between  the  lamb  and  a  human  body, 
foreshadowing  again,  with  almost  the  distinctness  of  the  very  substance  itself, 
the  offering  of  Jesus.  And  when  Abraham  answers  to  Isaac's  question, '  My 
son,  God  will  provide  himself  a  lamb,'  I  should  ask,  '  0, 1  wonder  if  Abraham 
knew  the  full  meaning  of  his  own  reply,  and  whether  he  believed  that  God 
would  provide  for  himself  a  lamb,  or  provide  himself  for  a  lamb  ? '  Then 
again  in  Exodus  xxiii,  18,  God  calls  this  paschal  lamb  '  my  sacrifice ' — the  sacri- 
fice chosen  of  God,  and  God  chosen  for  a  sacrifice.  Then  I  should  refer  them  to 
John  i,  29,  in  connection  with  Genesis  xxii,  7, '  My  son,  God  will  provide  him- 
self a  lamb,'  and  'Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  !'  In  his  first  epistle,  i,  19,  Peter 
says,  'A  Lamb  without  blemish  and  without  spot;'  John  says,  'the  Lamb  of 
God ;'  and  in  Isaiah  liii,  7  the  evangelical  prophet  says  of  Jesus, '  He  was  brought 
as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter.'  In  Exodus  xii,  45  we  read  of  the  lamb  that  was 
prepared  for  the  Passover,  '  Neither  shall  ye  break  a  bone  thereof;'  and  in  John 
xix,  33,  36,  'And  when  they  came  to  Jesus  they  brake  not  his  legs,  that  the 
Scripture  might  be  fulfilled,  A  bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken.'  And  in  Eev. 
v,  12  we  read  of  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  of  the  redeemed  singing, 
4  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain ;'  and  once  more,  in  Revelation  xv,  3, 
that '  they  sing  the  song  of  Moses  the  servant  of  God  and  the  song  of  the  Lamb.' " 

"  Snpt.  We  shall  only  have  time  now  to  ask  Brother  P.  what  practical  appli- 
cation he  would  make  of  this  lesson  to  his  scholars." 

*•  P.    I  think  I  should  tell  my  class  that  the  slaying  of  the  lamb  and  the 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  83 

In  Sunday-schools  upon  the  study  of  local  portions  of  Scrip- 
tin  e  to  the  neglect  of  others,  and  of  the  study  of  the  Bible  as 
a  whole,  destroys  in  the  minds  of  the  young  the  vital  idea  of 
the  harmony  of  its  parts,  and  depreciates  the  value  of  those 
portions  of  the  holy  record  not  ordinarily  submitted  to  the 
study  of  a  class.  Why  should  years  be  spent  upon  the  story 
of  Christ  in  the  Gospels  when  he  is  to  be  found  in  every 
portion  of  Holy  Scripture  ? 

In  the  same  connection  it  should  be  remembered  that  there 
is  a  striking  progress  in  revelation  from  its  dawn  to  the  last 
vision  in  the  Apocalypse.  It  is  a  progress  in  nearly  every 
respect  in  the  development  of  God's  spiritual  kingdom  upon 
the  earth,  as  to  the  comprehension  of  it  by  those 

J  Revelation 

to  whom  it  is  revealed,  and  as  to  its  require-  progressive, 
ments  in  order  to  secure  the  divine  mercy.  This  thought 

sprinkling  of  the  blood  in  the  way  of  God's  appointment  was  the  means  God 
had  provided  to  bring  the  Israelites  out  of  their  cruel  bondage.  I  would  en- 
deavor to  show  my  scholars  that  they  have  sinned,  and  in  common  with  the 
whole  race,  are  under  the  bondage  of  sin,  a  bondage  more  cruel  and  relentless 
than  that  of  the  Israelites,  and  that  God  has  provided  a  way  of  deliverance  from 
this  bondage ;  that  Christ  is  that  way ;  that  his  shed  blood  is  the  only  means 
that  God  will  use ;  and  that  this  blood  must  be  applied  to  the  heart  if  the  de- 
stroying angel,  the  avenging  justice  of  God,  shall  pass  over  that  heart.  1 
should  try  to  show  that  it  matters  not  what  the  previous  condition  or  character 
of  the  inmates  of  the  house  had  been  if  only  the  blood  was  found  sprinkled  on 
the  doorposts,  and  so  it  matters  not  how  greatly  we  havo  sinned  against  God  if 
Jesus's  blood  is  sprinkled  on  the  door  of  our  hearts  we  are  safe.  Now  how  shall 
we  apply  this  blood  of  Christ,  and  appropriate  it  to  our  own  souls  ?  Well,  I 
should  say  that  obedience  to  God's  command  on  the  part  of  the  Israelites  was 
an  evidence  of  their  faith ;  so,  if  we  obey  God's  command  to  believe  on  the 
sacrifice  he  has  appointed  for  sin,  we  exercise  faith  in  the  power  and  efficacy  of 
his  blood  to  save  us,  and  faith  therefore  appropriates  the  sacrifice  and  saves  us. 
And  I  might  say  at  the  close  that  each  house  had  to  have  for  itself  the  sign  of 
blood  upon  it  in  order  to  salvation,  so  each  soul  must  be  sprinkled  for  itself 
with  the  blood  of  Christ  or  it  will  be  eternally  lost." 


84  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

will  aid  the  Bible  student  in  comprehending  many  of  the  acts 
in  human  lives,  as  recorded  in  God's  word,  which  did  not,  at 
the  time 'they  were  committed,  through  the  darkness  of  the 
dispensation,  destroy  the  sensibility  of  conscience,  or  remove 
from  them  the  favor  of  God.  Dr.  Chalmers,  referring  to  the  in- 
Dr.  Chalmers  cidents  of  deceit,  inordinate  indulgence,  and  even 

on  a  progress- 

oFmonUity!^  social  crime  in  men  that  seemed  really  to  enjoy 
communion  with  God,  and  some  of  them  to  be  able  to  write 
spiritual  hymns  and  prayers  that  penitent  and  pious  men  in 
all  ages  can  adopt  as  the  expression  of  their  own  emotions, 
remarks,  that  these  examples,  set  forth  in  Scripture  without 
reprobation,  "  are  fitted  to  stagger  those  who  reflect  not  suf- 
ficiently on  the  incapacity  of  our  narrow  faculties  with  their 
limited  range  to  pronounce  on  all  the  objects  and  history  of 
the  divine  administration.  Though  morality  in  the  abstract 
is  unchangeable,  it  looks  as  if  in  the  concrete  there  was  a 
progressive  morality  from  one  era  to  another,  an  accommoda- 
tion to  the  ruder  and  earlier  periods  of  humanity,  distinctly 
intimated  by  our  Saviour  when  he  tells  us  of  polygamy  being 
allowed  before  the  times  of  the  Gospels,  because  of  the  hard- 
ness of  their  hearts.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  there  is  no 
example,  as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  of  any  deception  or  imper- 
fect morality  of  any  sort  being  recorded  of  Christian  disciples 
in  the  New  Testament  without  a  prompt  and  decided  con- 
demnation, as  in  the  case  of  Paul  rebuking  Peter  for  his  am- 
bidextrous policy  between  Jews  and  Gentiles."  14 
Bernard  on  A  late  writer,  Bernard,  in  his  Bampton  Lec- 

progresa      in 

tamentT  Tes      tures,  has  shown  most  convincingly  the  gradual 
14  Scripture  Headings,  vol.  i,  p.  2". 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  85 

development  of  doctrines  in  the  New  Testament,  from 
the  revelation  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  coming  without 
observation  into  human  hearts,  to  the  universal  and  triumph- 
ant kingdom  over  angels  and  men,  as  set  forth  in  the  book 
of  Revelation ;  from  the  moral  lessons  of  the  sermon  on  the 
mount  to  the  full  development  of  the  life  of  faith  in  the 
epistles  of  St.  Paul ;  and  from  the  penitent  prodigal  returning 
to  the  father's  house  to  the  moral  Jewish  counselor,  pointed 
to  the  crucified  Messiah  as  the  means  of  securing  the 
new  birth  through  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost.15  This 
view  of  the  Bible  makes  all  inspired  Scripture  "profitable 
for  doctrine." 

Olshausen  remarks  that  "  throughout  Scripture  there  runs 
the  doctrine  of  a  deep,  essential  connection  between  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  As  the  Old  Testament  is  oishausen  on 

unity         arid 

always  pointing  onward  to  the  New,  so  the  latter  scripture.  lr 
is  always  pointing  backward  to  the  Old  as  its  necessary 
precedent.  Consequently,  both  alike  bear  the  character  of  a 
divine  revelation;  only  this  revelation  manifests  itself  in  a 
gradual  development.  In  the  Old  Testament  it  appears  in 
its  commencement  as  the  seed  of  the  subsequent  plant ;  in 
the  New  Testament  the  living  plant  itself  is  exhibited.  On 
account  of  this  relation  there  cannot  be  any  thing  in  the  Old 
Testament  specifically  different  from  what  is  to  be  found  in 
the  New  Testament,  only  the  form  of  presenting  the  same 
thing  is  at  one  time  more  or  less  plain  and  direct  than  at 
another."  1G 

15  Progress  of  Doctrine  in  the  New  Testament,  by  Thomas  D.  Bernard,  M.A., 
18  Commentaries,  vol.  i,  p.  131. 


86  THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

II.  In  thiB  connection  it  may  be  remarked  that  it  is  iinpor- 
The  scope  of  tant  to  understand  the  scope  of  each  book  of  the 

each  book  to 

stood.  undei  Bible,  the  especial  revelation  it  proposes  to  make, 
the  main  object  for  which  it  was  written,  or  the  circum- 
stances that  called  it  forth.  The  best  commentary  upon  some 
of  the  epistles  is  a  knowledge  of  the  occasion  of  their  being 
written,  and  a  careful  reading  of  them  through,  instead  of 
piecemeal  by  chapters,  as  they  have  been  arbitrarily  broken 
up  for  the  benefit  of  reference. 

Mr.  Locke  thus  recommends  the  perusal  of  a  book  at  a 
sitting.  Referring  to  his  own  experience,  he  says :  "  I  con- 
Locke's  habit  eluded  that  it  was  necessary,  for  the  understand- 

book  at  a  sit-      ^  of  any  one  of  them^  ^  paul,s  epistleSj)  often 

to  read  it  all  through  at  one  sitting,  and  to  observe,  as  well 
as  I  could,  the  design  of  his  writing  it.  If  the  first  reading 
gave  me  some  light,  the  second  gave  me  more ;  and  so  I 
persisted  on,  reading  constantly  the  whole  epistle  over  at 
once,  till  I  came  to  have  a  good  general  view  of  the  apostle's 
main  purpose  in  writing." 

Sometimes   the   sacred  writer   states   with   more   or  less 
definiteness  his  purpose,  and  his  argument  is  to 

{Sometimes  *       *         7 

?redC   writer     be  read  in  view  of  this  plan.    An  instance  is 

stated         by 

found  in  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  In  the 
first  three  chapters  he  thoroughly  reviews  the  moral  condi- 
tion of  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  all  ages,  and  proves  that  the 
whole  world  is  guilty  before  God.  In  the  twentieth  verse  of 
the  third  chapter  he  states  his  main  purpose  is  to  show  that 
"by  the  deeds  of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified  in  his 
sight;  for  by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin."  Having 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  87 

gained  this,  he  proposes  to  answer  the  momentous  question : 
4  How  shall  a  man  be  just  with  God  ? "  After  a  clear  and 
powerful  discussion  of  the  subject  through  the  seven  verses 
that  follow,  in  the  twenty-eighth  he  announces  the  evident 
result  of  his  reasoning :  "  Therefore,  we  conclude  that  a  man 
is  justified  by  faith  without  the  deeds  of  the  law."  This 
conclusion  the  apostle  then  proceeds  to  set  forth  and  illus- 
trate in  its  various  relations  to  human  experience  and  to 
God's  previous  dealings  with  his  people. 

The  best  commentators  are  not  those  that  are  the  most 
profuse  in  notes  upon  separate  words,  but  who  give  the 
general  scope  and  meaning  of  the  sacred  writers. 

The      beauty 

As  you  ruin  a  flower  by  tearing  it  in  pieces,  so     ISiptaJ^de- 

our  multiplied  lessons  upon  limited  portions  of     considering  \t 

out  of  its  con- 
Scripture  tear  the  divine  record   into   tatters,     nectlons- 

destroy  both  its  refreshing  fragrance  and  its  beauty,  and 
really  sacrifice  its  life  and  power.17 

17  The  interest  that  has  been  awakened  in  the  ministry  and  among  the 
people  in  the  exposition  of  the  Scriptures  from  the  pulpit  is  a  wholesome  sign 
of  the  times.  The  Biblo  text  is  too  often  announced  at  the  commencement  of 
a  sermon  simply  as  a  motto  or  a  sentiment  to  distinguish  the  discourse  from 
an  ordinary  lecture.  There  is  no  instrument  placed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
hands  of  a  godly  minister  so  powerful  to  save  and  to  edify  the  Church  as  the 
Scriptures  of  truth.  One  of  the  ablest  and  most  popular  ministers  of  New 
York  has  crowded  his  church  on  Sabbath  afternoons  now  for  more  than  a  year 
with  expositions  of  the  word  of  God  in  order,  commencing  with  Genesis.  No 
course  can  more  effectually  fortify  the  youth  of  the  Church  against  the  specious 
attacks  upon  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  now  filling  the  literature  of  the  age. 
Dr.  M'Lelland  somewhat  tartly  remarks :  "  Nor  can  we  approve  the  practice 
adopted  by  many  preachers,  of  running  into  their  pulpits  with  a  single  sentence 
or  part  of  one,  which  they  make  their  exclusive  subject,  not  bestowing  on  the 
connection  a  word  of  notice,  unless  they  have  been  hurried  in  their  prepara- 
.jons,  £ffld  find  it  convenient  to  talk  a  little  round  it  in  an  extempore  Intro- 


88  THE  WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Lessons  upon  the  Gospels  chronologically  arranged  have 
vheir  purpose,  but  they  divert  the  niind  of  the  learner  from  a 
comprehension  of  the  specific  and  important,  because  divine, 

Each  Gospel     character  and  object  of  each  evangelist.    Mat- 
has  a  charac- 
ter of  its  own.     thew   presents   the   kingly  side   of  our  Lord's 

character,  Mark  the  human,  Luke  the  sacrificial,  and  John 
the  divine.18 

duction.  "What  would  we  think  if  we  heard  any  other  book  prelected  on  in 
this  way— a  treatise  on  medicine,  for  instance,  or  on  morals  ?  or,  What  would 
we  think  of  a  judge  expounding  in  this  way  a  legal  statute  ?  The  civil  law 
has  laid  down  an  express  canon  on  the  subject,  as  if  indignant  at  the  idea  of 
such  a  practice.  It  says,  (as  translated :)  '  JSase  is  he  to  judge  concerning  the 
law,  not  having  examined  the  entire  law.'  Ministers  are  often  heard  to  chide  their 
people  sharply  for  the  careless  and  unprofitable  way  in  which  they  read  the 
word  of  God  ;  but  they  would  do  well  to  ask  whether  they  are  not  themselves 
to  blame  in  forming  them  to  such  wretched  habits  of  perusing  it.  "When  his 
reverence  appears  before  the  people  month  after  month  without,  in  a  single 
instance  perhaps,  explaining  the  design,  coherence,  and  argument  of  a  paragraph 
containing  only  six  verses,  it  is  really  too  much  to  expect  that  honest  John 
will  spend  his  Sabbath  evenings  in  supplying  the  pastor's  lack  of  service." 

18  Bernard,  in  his  Bampton  Lectures  upon  the  "  Progress  of  Doctrine  in  the 
New  Testament,"  thus  happily  presents  the  scope  of  revelation  in  the  New 
Testament :  "  First,  a  person  is  manifested  and  facts  are  set  forth  in  the  sim- 
plest external  aspect,  under  the  clearest  light,  and  with  the  concurrence  of  a 
fourfold  witness.  This  witness  also  is  itself  progressive,  and  in  the  last  Gospel 
the  glory  of  the  person  has  grown  more  bright,  and  the  meaning  of  the  facts 
more  clear.  Then  in  the  book  of  Acts  Christ  is  preached  as  perfected,  and  as 
the  refuge  and  life  of  the  world.  The  results  of  his  appearing  are  summed  up 
and  settled,  and  men  are  called  to  believe  and  be  saved.  Those  who  do  so  find 
themselves  in  new  relations  to  each  other,  they  become  one  body,  and  grow 
into  the  form  and  life  of  a  catholic  (or  universal)  Church.  The  state  which  has 
thus  been  entered  needs  to  be  expounded,  and  the  life  which  has  been  begun 
needs  to  be  educated.  The  apostolic  letters  perform  the  work.  The  questions 
which  universally  follow  the  first  submissions  of  the  mind  receive  their  an- 
Bwers,  and  so  the  faith  which  was  general  grows  definite.  The  rising  exigencies 
of  the  new  life  are  met,  both  for  the  man  and  for  the  Church;  and  we  learn 
Srhat  is  the  happy  consciousness,  and  what  the  holy  conversation,  which  belong 


THE  WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  89 

HI.  In  interpreting  Scripture  we  are  never  to  forget  its 
character.  It  is  not  intended  to  be  a  revelation  scripture  not 

a    revelation 

of  science  or  a  model  of  history,  or  to  be  judged     of  science. 
simply  as  to  the  literature  of  its  poetry.     It  proposes  simply 
to  reveal  God's  truth  to  all  ages  of  men. 

Dr.  Stowe,  in  his  interesting  work  upon  the  books  of  the 
Bible,  remarks  in  a  characteristically  strong  and  perhaps 
somewhat  extravagant  way,  "  The  Bible  does  not  Dr.  stowe  on 

unscientific 

state,  and  never  professes  to  state,  scientific  facts  &%£?* 
in  scientific  forms,  but  only  phenomena  or  appearances  to 
the  eye  of  a  spectator.  For  example,  that  the  earth  revolves 
on  its  axis  from  west  to  east  once  in  twenty-four  hours,  thus 
producing  day  and  night,  is  a  scientific  fact ;  this  the  Bible 
never  states,  nor  even  alludes  to.  Indeed,  I  do  not  suppose 
that  the  writers  of  the  Bible  knew  anything  about  it,  for  '  in- 
spiration is  not  omniscence.'  That  the  sun  rises  in  the  east 
and  passes  along  in  the  heavens  till  he  sets  in  the  west  is  a 
phenomenon,  an  appearance  to  the  human  eye,  and  this,  and 
this  only,  is  what  the  Bible  speaks  of,  just  as  in  the  language 

to  those  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus.  Lastly,  as  members  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
we  find  ourselves  partakers  in  a  corporate  life  and  a  history  larger  than  our 
own.  We  feel  that  we  are  taken  up  into  a  scheme  of  things  which  is  in  conflict 
with  the  present,  and  which  cannot  realize  itself  here.  Therefore,  our  final 
teaching  is  by  prophecy,  which  shows  us,  not  how  we  are  personally  saved  and 
victorious,  but  how  the  battle  goes  upon  the  whole,  and  which  issues  in  the 
appearance  of  a  holy  city,  in  which  redemption  reaches  its  end,  and  the 
Redeemer  finds  his  joy;  in  which  human  tendencies  are  realized,  and  divine 
promises  fulfilled ;  in  which  the  ideal  has  become  the  actual,  and  man  is  per- 
fected in  the  presence  and  glory  of  God.  .  .  .  Only  the  written  word  of  God, 
confidingly  followed  in  the  progressive  steps  of  its  advance,  can  lead  the 
weakest  or  the  wisest  into  the  deep  blessedness  of  the  life  that  is  in  Christ; 
and  into  the  final  glory  of  the  city  of  God." 


90  THE   WOKD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

of  common  life  and  common  sense  every- where,  both  among 
the  learned  and  unlearned.  While  the  statements  of  the 
Bible  are  true  to  the  phenomena,  the  appearances,  they  are 
right ;  they  have  nothing  to  do  with  scientific  facts,  and  can- 
not come  into  collision  with  them  any  more  than  the  decis- 
ions of  a  judge  in  the  supreme  court  can  come  in  collision 
with  the  governor's  coach,  for  the  two  subjects  are  not  of  the 
same  kind,  they  belong  to  two  entirely  different  spheres  of 
thought ;  they  do  not  travel  at  all  in  the  same  road,  and 

Folly  of  inter-  how  can  they  come  in  collision  ?  To  inter- 
preting the 

sl^asa treat     Pret  tlie  ^rst  c^apter  of  Genesis  as  a  geological 

ise  upon  geol- 
ogy, essay,  and  to  attempt  to  remove  from,  it,  by  scien- 
tific methods,  geological  difficulties,  seems  to  me  like  inter- 
preting the  parable  of  the  sower  as  an  agricultural  essay,  and 
attempting  to  avoid  the  difficulty  that  the  fowls  of  the  air 
devoured  only  the  seed  that  fell  by  the  way  side,  by  learned 
inquiries  as  to  whether  birds  in  ancient  times  could  fly  over 
fences,  and  whether  they  were  not  obliged  to  keep  the  road, 
and  solemnly  imagining  the  sustaining  of  the  latter  supposi- 
tion to  be  essential  to  the  vindication  of  the  truthfulness  of 
Christ  as  a  religious  teacher.  How  much  better  to  look  at 
the  simple  fact  just  as  it  existed,  to  wit,  that  in  the  Eastern 
countries,  as  now  in  Germany  and  France,  the  farms  were 
seldom  fenced,  and  the  fields  for  the  most  part  were  guarded 
by  old  men,  women,  and  children,  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep 
away  the  birds  as  well  as  the  cattle ;  and  this  practice  very 
generally  obtains  in  those  countries  at  the  present  day,  simply 
because  that  there  old  men,  women,  and  children  are  cheaper 
than  fencing  stuff.  In  the  interpretation  of  so  plain  and 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD   OPENED.  9*. 

homely  a  book  as  the  Bible  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  and 
good  common  sense  are  generally  much  better    common  sense 

an  interpreter 

guides  than  scientific  ingenuity  or  metaphysical    of the  Bible- 
subtilty.      The   Bible   was   not  written   with   reference   to 
science  or  philosophy,  but  with  reference  to  the  feelings,  im- 
pressions, and  needs  of  the  great  masses  of  mankind,  and 
they  are  neither  scientific  men  nor  philosophers." 19 

No  Christian  student  need  have  anxiety  lest  any  revelation 
in  the  natural  world  will  ever  contradict  the  Bible.  What- 
ever discoveries  are  made  in  chronology  as  to  the  duration  of 
man's  previous  residence  upon  earth,  as  to  the  True  science 

cannot  harm 

origin  of  species,  or  in  the  hidden  strata  of  the  the  Bible- 
earth,  the  Christian  scholar  may  patiently  await  their  full 
development.  They  may  be  thrust  forward  in  the  interest  of 
unbelief;  but  it  will  ever  be  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  that 
the  revelations  of  all  the  sciences  as  they  come  to  be  fully 
Understood  will  entirely  accord  with  the  tenor  and  spirit  of 
God's  word.  The  Bible  is  no  nearer  being  an  obsolete  book 
than  it  was  when  the  earth  was  supposed  to  be  the  center  of 
the  universe,  and  the  whole  celestial  system  was  thought  to 
have  been  created  in  exactly  six  days. 

IV.  The  fact  must  not  be  overlooked  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures are  unsystematic.  They  contain  no  "  body  of  divinity," 
and  no  connected  catechism,  with  questions  and  answers.  The 
attributes  of  God  are  gathered  as  they  are  dis- 

The  Bible  un- 

closed  in  his  providential  government  over  his     sclentlfic- 
people,  or  in  various  revelations  through  different  inspired 
men,  and  in  different  forms.     The  doctrines  of  the  Gospel 
19  Origin  and  History  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible,  page  29. 


92  THE  WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

relating  to  sin  and  human  salvation  are  presented  without 
order  all  over  the  sacred  pages.  One  view  will  l>e  presented 
at  one  time — as  the  love  of  God  and  the  welcome  with  which 
he  receives  the  penitent — and  the  indispensableness  of  the 
Different  new  birth  at  another.  At  one  time  Paul  sets 

truths  taught 

t\mesdiffe  'ent  forth  the  vital  character  of  faith,  without  which 
it  is  impossible  to  please  God,  and  the  helplessness  of  one 
who  hopes  to  save  himself  simply  by  good  works :  while 
James,  in  view  of  a  condition  of  things  then  existing  in  the 
Church,  sets  forth  with  great  prominence  good  works  as 
the  only  reliable  human  test  of  a  correct  faith.  There  can 
be  no  contradiction.  All  the  views  of  all  the  sacred  writers 
are  true,  but  they  need  to  be  understood  in  harmony  with 
each  other,  and  must  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  they  were  written.  Goulburn 
Gouibum's ii-  remarks,  "The  precept  and  the  doctrine  (in  the 

lustration    of 

this.  Scriptures)  are  thrown  out  just  as  the  occasion 

for  them  offers.  The  sacred  writer  does  not  stop  to  guard  or 
counterbalance  them ;  if  they  need  this,  the  counterbalancing 
precept  is  to  be  found  in  another  inspired  writing,  which 
originated  on  a  wholly  different  occasion.  Even  so  in  the 
field  of  nature  we  do  not  find  a  noxious  herb 

Analogy      in 

growing  side  by  side  with  its  antidote ;  but 
noxious  herbs  (only  noxious  in  certain  applications,  having 
their  uses  and  services  in  the  general  system)  are  found  in 
one  locality  ;  in  another  district,  whose  features  are  different, 
springs  up  the  medicinal  plant.  Man  is  left  to  discover  and 
apply  the  counteracting  power." 
Overlooking  this  truth  the  great  reformer  himself,  Martin 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  93 

Luther,  who  had  fought  in  his  own  person  for  the  doctrine 
of  salvation  by  faith  only,  was  disposed  to  throw 

Error  of  Mar- 

out  of  the  canon  the  Epistle  of  James  as  teach-  tln  Luther- 
ing  a  different  Gospel,  and  therefore  not  one  of  the  divine 
circle.  Luther  was  right  in  his  doctrine  according  to  Paul, 
and  so  was  James.  There  was,  in  truth,  no  collision  between 
them  ;  but  the  reformer  was  too  impatient  in  the  stress  of  his 
struggle  with  the  Roman  Church  to  give  the  apostle  a  care- 
ful examination.  Into  this  error  those  fall  who  affirm  a  finite 

and  human  nature  only  to  the  Son  of  God,  and     Error  of  Ra- 
tionalists arid 
quote  the  words  of  Jesus  himself  to  prove  it;     Universaiists. 

who  insist  that  repentance  without  faith  in  the  atonement  is 
all  that  is  requisite  to  secure  the  favor  of  God,  and  quote  the 
parable  of  the  prodigal  son;  and  those  also  who  predicate 
the  final  salvation  of  all  upon  the  revealed  doctrine  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  Their  views  are  certainly  to  be  found 
in  portions  of  the  inspired  word,  but  they  are  essentially 
modified  without  being  in  the  least  nullified  by  distinct 
revelations  found  in  other  portions  of  the  Bible,  and  readily 
harmonized  when  one  is  willing  to  receive  the  whole  counsel 
of  God.  These  Scriptures  present  but  different  sides  of  the 
same  truth. 

V.  Here  we  may  remark  that  the  interpreter  should  not 
consider  himself  responsible  for  what  is  said  or     interpreter  m 

*•  not  responsi- 

i  ,     •        ,1        n     •    i  mi  •  i  &      ble   f°r  what 

taught  in   the   Scriptures.     This   revelation   of     God  says. 
God  requires  no  apology  from  him.     His  simple  office  is  to 
discover  what  the  Holy  Spirit  teaches.     It  is  not  for  him  to 
Boften  any  threatening,  to  modify  any  doctrine,  to  "  explain 
away "  the   apparent  meaning  of  any  text,  but   simply  to 


94  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

declare  the  evident  sense  of  what  "is  written."  Says  Dr. 
Doedes,  professor  of  divinity  in  the  University  of  Utrecht  : 
"  Let  the  New  Testament  teach  what  it  teaches  ;  and  if  men 
do  not  agree  with  it,  let  them  have  the  courage  to  say  so. 
Dr.Doedeson  If  men  do  not  agree  with  it,  it  is  because  they 

the   irrespon- 

Ur  ft     think  that  they  know  better-     Well,  be  it  so. 


exact  text.  But  let  the  Kew  Testament  have  its  own  views. 
The  task  of  the  interpreter  is  verily  not  of  such  a  nature 
that  when  he  does  his  duty  he  need  ever  make  himself  feel 
anxious  while  employed  upon  it.  But  he  must  needs  become 
anxious  if  he  hold  himself  responsible  for  what  is  written 
there.  This,  then,  however,  is  a  cross  that  he  lays  on  his 
own  shoulders  ;  and,  alas  !  a  source  of  torture  to  the  writings 
which  he  has  to  interpret."  20  "  Be  very  careful,"  he  says  in 
another  place,  "  lest  you  make  the  Scriptures  say  what  you 
would  like  to  find  in  them.  What  have  people  not  extracted 
from  the  New  Testament  ?  that  is,  What  have  people  not 
introduced  into  it?"  We  should  not  forget  that  it  is  the 
truth  of  God  that  saves,  not  our  opinion  of  what  that  truth 
should  be. 

VI.  The  earliest  interpreters  of  Scripture,  in  order  more 
readily  to  reconcile  difficulties,  and  to  combat  the 

Error  of  early 

interpreters.  Yiews  of  certain  erroiists,  held  to  a  figurative,  sym- 
bolical, double,  threefold,  fourfold,  and  manifold  meaning  of 
the  words  of  the  sacred  record.  Origen  taught  that  the  liteial 
word  was  valueless,  and  that  even  the  Scripture  histories 
were  allegorical  ;  that  the  six  days  of  creation  signified  the 
renovation  of  the  soul,  the  six  days  intimating  that  it  was  a 
80  Hermeneutics  of  the  New  Testament,  page  59. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  95 

progressive  work.  Israel  in  Egypt  is  the  soul  living  in  error, 
and  the  seven  plagues  are  its  purgations  from  various  evil 
habits ;  the  frogs  denoting  loquacity,  the  fleas  carnal  appe- 
tites, the  boils  pride  and  arrogance,  etc.  As  man  is  com- 
posed of  body,  mind,  and  soul,  he  taught  that  there  was  a 
threefold  sense,  the  literal,  the  moral,  and  the  spiritual,  in 
which  the  truth  of  inspiration  was  to  be  considered.  Origen, 
reading  that  Abraham  married  Keturah  in  his  old  age,  and 
learning  that  Keturah  meant  in  Hebrew  "  sweet  odor,"  and 
esteeming  "  sweet  odor "  to  be  a  scriptural  figure  of  the 
fragrance  of  righteousness  of  character,  taught  that  the  true 
meaning  of  this  passage  was,  that  in  his  old  age  Abraham 

became    eminently    holy.      These    views,   with     The  Reforma- 
tion changed 
vanous   modifications,  influenced  the  interpre-     tbis. 

tation  of  Scripture,  until  the  morning  of  the  Reformation 
put  to  flight  the  clouds  and  fogs  that  had  settled  down 
upon  the  word  of  God.  But  one  Church,  that  of  the 
]SFew  Jerusalem,  or  the  Swedenborgian,  at  the  present  day 
gives  countenance  to  such  a  rendering  of  the  Scriptures. 
Such  a  view  makes  the  Bible  not  the  revelation,  but  the 
obscuration,  of  the  will  of  God.  There  is  a  tendency 
among  some  teachers  to  seek  far-fetched  and  fanciful  inter- 
pretations, especially  of  the  Old  Testament;  as  when  the 
six  steps  by  which  Solomon  ascended  to  his  throne  are 
made  to  represent  the  six  steps  a  sinner  takes  to  reach 
pardon  and  eternal  life :  conviction,  repentance,  faith,  regen- 
eration, justification,  and  sanctification.  Upon  the  "  instru- 
ment of  ten  strings  "  with  which  the  Psalmist  would  praise 
God,  Chrysostom  discourses  upon  the  Ten  Commandments, 


96  THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

made  delightful  and  easy  to  keep  by  divine  grace.  On  the 
text,  "  Whereof  every  one  beareth  twins,"  he  asks,  "  What 
twins  ?"  and  answers,  "  The  law  and  the  prophets — the  two 
commandments  whereon  hang  all  in  the  life  of  every  be- 
liever !  "  The  'bread  and  fish  and  egg  which  the  child  asks  of 
his  father  in  the  parable  are  thus  explained  by  him :  the 
bread  is  the  soul,  the  fish  is  faith,  which  lives  amid  the 
billows  of  temptation,  and  the  egg  is  hope,  a  pledge  of 
something,  but  not  the  chicken  itself!  This  is  always 
reprehensible  and  dangerous.  The  custom  of  giving  lessons 
upon  the  blackboard  in  Sunday-schools  tends,  although  not 
necessarily,  to  this  habit  of  allegorizing  the  Scriptures.21 

81  Dr.  Wise,  in  the  "  Sunday-School  Journal "  for  March,  1868,  makes  the 
following  well-deserved  and  appropriate  criticism  upon  a  "  blackboard  exercise  " 
prepared  as  a  model  for  the  "Sunday-School  Times:1' 

" '  How  TO  PREPARE  A  BLACKBOARD  EXERCISE  FOR  A  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

LESSON. 

1.  Learn  the  lesson  thoroughly;  get  the  head,  and  especially  the  heart,  full  of 
It,  by  hard  study  and  earnest  prayer. 

2.  Select  the  thought  you  wish  to  use. 

3.  Condense  that  thought  to  the  smallest  and  sharpest  point  possible. 

4.  Place  that  point  upon  the  board. 

5.  Eemember  that  the  thought  or  outline  on  the  board  is  but  '•'•dry  bones" 
until  clothed  with  "thoughts  that  breathe  and. words  that  burn  "  from  a  warm 
and  earnest  heart. 

EXERCISE : 
OPEN  WINDOWS  DANGEROUS  FOR  SLEEPERS.* 

Acts  xx,  9-12. 

TJie  open  windows.  Place  of  safety.  The  open  windoics.  Place  of  safety. 
Ball  room.  Gambling  Saloons. 

Theater.  In  Christ  only.  Impenitence.  In  Christ  only. 

Drinking  Saloons.  Etc.,  etc. 

*  Those  sleep  in  optn  windows  who  do  not  realize  the  dangers  to  which  they  are  exposed. 
Call  upon  the  school  to  name  the  open  windows.  E,  H.  Y. 

PLYMOUTH,  ILL. 


THE  WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  97 

The  principle  of  interpretation  which  now  prevails 
throughout  the  Christian  Church  is  sometimes  Historico.- 

grammatical 

called  the  historico-grarnmatical  mode.    It  affirms     Srpretation?" 

"  The  five  canons  here  laid  down  are  certainly  very  excellent,  provided  the 
second  be  properly  qualified.  '  Select  the  thought  you  wish  to  use.'  Very 
good.  But  then  that  thought  should  be  one  that  is  obviously  in  the  passage,  or 
logically  deducible  from  it  It  should  be  the  leading  thought  But  E.  II.  Y.  in 
his  'exercise'  violates  his  own  canon  by  putting  a  'thought1  on  the  board 
which  is  not  selected  from  the  lesson  he  proposes  to  illustrate,  because  it  is  not 
in  it  at  all.  Let  us  look  at  it  a  moment. 

"  The  lesson  is  Acts  xx,  9-12,  which  records  Paul's  farewell  sermon  at  Troas, 
the  sleep  of  Eutychus  at  the  open  window,  the  fall  and  death  of  the  sleeper,  with 
Ms  restoration  to  life  by  the  apostle. 

"  From  this  passage,  which  was  evidently  recorded  for  the  purpose  of  preserv- 
ing an  account  of  the  miracle,  and  not  to  censure  Eutychus  for  a  slumber  which, 
if  not  unavoidable,  was  certainly  excusable  under  the  circumstances,  we  have 
for  a  selected  point, 

" '  OPEN  WINDOWS  DANGEROUS  FOE  SLEEPEBS/  " 

M  Now  if  the  lesson  contained  this  proposition,  to  select  it  would  show  a  singu- 
lar avoidance  of  a  grand  illustration  of  divine  power  for  the  sake  of  bringing 
out  an  unimportant  physical  fact  But  the  proposition  itself  is  neither  in  the 
lesson,  nor  is  it  true  in  itself. 

"  All  that  the  lesson  teaches  about  open  windows  and  sleepers  is,  that  it  is  dan- 
gerous for  persons  to  sleep  in  open  windows.  But  E.  H.  Y.  says,  its  thought 
is  '  open  windows  dangerous  for  sleepers,'  a  statement  which  omits  the  impor- 
tant fact  that  the  danger  arises  not  from  the  open  windows  but  from  sleeping 
in  them.  This  omission  makes  the  statement  false,  for  open  windows  are  often 
healthful,  instead  of  being  dangerous,  to  sleepers. 

tf  True,  E.  H.  Y.  in  his  note  attempts  to  explain  his  meaning,  but  the  need  he 
felt  for  the  insertion  of  a  qualifying  note  ought  to  have  shown  him  that  his 
proposition  was  defective.  The  '  thought '  on  a  blackboard  should  be  so  put 
as  not  to  need  qualification.  If  it  does,  one  object  of  the  blackboard,  which  is 
to  impress  some  great  truth  on  the  mind  through  the  eye,  is  defeated.  Scholars 
carry  away  the  point  as  it  is  written,  not  as  it  is  qualified  by  the  speaker. 

"  This  defect  in  his  main  point  vitiates  the  logic  of  his  whole  '  exercise.'  Who 
can  see  any  connection  between  an  open  window  and  a  ball  room,  a  theater,  or 
a  drinking  saloon  ?  The  note  says  the  point  of  analogy  is  *  that  those  who 
sleep  in  open  windows  do  not  realize  the  dangers  to  which  they  are  exposed,' 
etc.  But  this  statement  confuses  the  mind  by  changing  the  subject  of  the  prop- 

7 


98  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

that  the  simple  grammatical  meaning  of  the  text  in  its  con- 
nections, modified  only  by  what  is  requisite  to  be  known 

osition.  In  the  stated  point  *  open  windows'*  constitute  the  subject;  in  the 
note,  those  who  '  sleep  in  open  windows.' 

"  Indeed,  the  note  makes  a  new  statement  of  the  selected  thought  It  is  no 
longer  'open  windows  dangerous  to  sleepers,'  but  those  who  sleep  in  open 
windows  '  do  not  realize  the  danger  to  which  they  are  exposed,'  which  is  cer- 
tainly nearer  the  truth  than  the  other.  But  its  introduction  tends  to  confuse 
the  mind  of  the  scholar. 

"Again,  the  '  exercise '  is  defective  because  it  leaves  its  l  point '  unproven.  It 
assumes  the  ball  room,  etc.,  to  be  l  open  windows,'  but  as  there  is  no  obvious 
analogy  between  an  open  window  and  a  ball  room,  the  assertion  must  fall  with- 
out weight  on  the  scholar's  mind. 

M  But  E.  H.  Y.  will  say,  perhaps,  that  his  note  was  intended  to  define  the  last 
term  in  his  proposition — sleepers.  Yery  good.  Let  us  apply  his  definition  to 
his  figurative  open  windows— the  ball  room  for  example.  How  will  it  stand  ? 
Why  thus :  The  '  ball  room '  is  '  dangerous  for  sleepers,'  that  is,  for  those 
'  who  do  not  realize  the  dangers  to  which  they  are  exposed."1  Does  not  this 
make  the  danger  lie,  not  in  the  thing  itself,  but  in  the  failure  of  the  ball  room 
risitor  to  realize  the  true  character  of  the  place  ?  Let  him  realize  this,  and  be- 
come a  conscious  and  willful  sinner,  and  the  ball  room  ceases  to  be  an  open 
window.  What  nonsense !  Yet  we  have  no  doubt  that  this  exercise,  given  by 
a  good  chalker  and  talker  in  a  school  or  institute,  would  be  regarded  as  very 
fine.  Its  ingenuity  would  divert  attention  from  its  fallacy. 

M  Finally,  the  whole  exercise  is  far-fetched.  It  is  absurd  to  argue  that  because 
Eutychus  tell  out  of  a  window  a  child  should  beware  of  going  to  a  ball  or  a  the- 
ter.  There  are  plenty  of  texts  which  could  be  properly  applied  to  dangerous 
amusements;  but  to  go  to  poor,  sleepy  Eutychus  for  an  argument  is  like  going 
from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  by  way  of  Albany.  The  journey  is  possible, 
but  it  is  needlessly  long.  That  such  an  exercise  should  be  given  as  a  model  in 
such  an  excellent  paper  as  the  u  Times,"  by  one  who  is  evidently  a  man  of 
mental  vigor,  is  a  justification  of  our  late  caution  to  keep  the  blackboard  out  of 
unskillful  hands.  The  blackboard  is  an  educational  Janus.  It  may  be  friend 
or  foe  to  real  instruction ;  therefore  we  say  again,  Use  it  sparingly,  use  it  skill- 
fully, or  let  it  alone. 

"  We  have  written  this  criticism  not  to  discourage  the  proper  use  of  the  black- 
board, but  to  guard  against  its  abuse.  As  an  example  of  false  syntax  is  often  a  bet- 
ter illustration  of  a  grammatical  rule  than  a  correct  rule,  so  may  this  criticism  be 
a  better  help  to  one  who  uses  the  blackboard  than  a  really  faultless  exercise." 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  99 

about  the  language  in  which  it  was  uttered,  the  individuality 
and  custom  of  speaking  of  the  author,  and  the  manners  and 
customs  of  the  times,  is  the  sense  in  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
reveals  his  truth  through  the  words  of  Scripture. 

The  proper  office  of  the  commentary,  Bible  dictionary,  and 

other  helps  is  to  correct  the  text  if  there  is  any 

Office  of  com- 
error,  to  give  the  modern  meaning  of  the  word     mentanes*etc- 

if  the  old  is  obsolete,  to  aid  in  reconciling  the  difficulties  of 
Scripture,  and  to  present  such  facts  in  relation  to  the  times 
and  customs  and  homes  of  the  writers  as  will  enable  us  better 
to  apprehend  their  meaning.  We  wish  to  obtain  from 
learned  men  the  exact  force  of  the  expressions  used  by  the 
inspired  writers ;  the  doctrines  and  precepts  involved  in  them 
we  can  apprehend  ourselves. 


100  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 


CHAPTER     Y. 

PRELIMINARY    STUDIES. 

lm  rflHIS  volume  is  written  to  meet  the  wants  of  those  who 

-*•   are  only  familiar  with  their  native  tongue — the  great 

body  of  our  Bible  interpreters  to  the  children  of  the  land. 

study  of  the     Our  own  language  is  enriched  with  the  choicest 

original  lan- 
guages, translations  from  other  tongues  of  works  of  crit- 
icism and  with  commentaries  upon  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Dictionaries  and  exegetical  notes  are  readily  obtained,  and 
at  comparatively  small  expense,  by  our  Sunday-school  teachers. 
But  to  those  that  are  still  young,  and  can,  although  at  con- 
siderable sacrifice,  secure  the  time  for  the  acquisition  of 
ability  to.  read  with  some  ease  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  text, 
we  would  unhesitatingly  say,  the  pleasurable  and  profitable 
results  will  be  an  ample  compensation  for  all  the  requisite 
toil.  The  finest  linguist  of  New  England  mastered  the 
numerous  tongues  which  he  read  and  spake  while  prose- 
cuting the  laborious  business  of  a  blacksmith.  It  is  not 
Persons  need  necessary  to  become  critical  scholars  in  order,  by 

not    necessa- 

schoiars.ltlcal  a  general  knowledge  of  the  grammar,  idioms, 
and  meaning  of  the  words,  to  be  enabled  better  to  appreciate 
and  weigh  the  published  results  of  the  life-long  scholarship 
and  devotion  to  the  work  of  biblical  interpretation  now  the 
possession  of  the  Christian  Church.  It  is  said  of 

Bradford  the 

Puritan.  tke  Puritan  Bradford  that  he  mastered  the  Latin 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  101 

and  Greek,  and  studied  the  Hebrew,  because  "  he  would  see 
with  his  own  eyes  the  ancient  oracles  of  God  in  their  native 
beauty." 

II.  In  order  to  appreciate  the  meaning,  the  force,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  sacred  writings,  it  is  necessary  to  be  familiar 
with  the  geography  of  biblical  countries,  and  of  Should  be  fa- 

niiliar      with 

the  former  and  present  appearance  of  Scripture  raphy?1  ge°g 
places.  Of  the  effect  of  such  a  knowledge  to  confirm  our 
confidence  in  the  Bible,  and  to  throw  light  upon  its  inspired 
pages,  even  Renan,  the  French  Rationalist,  says :  "  My 
commission  led  me  to  reside  on  the  frontiers  of  Galilee, 
and  to  traverse  it  frequently.  I  have  traveled 

Testimony  of 

through  the  evangelical  province  in  every  direc-  Renan- 
tion.  I  have  visited  Jerusalem,  Hebron,  and  Samaria. 
Scarcely  any  locality  important  in  the  history  of  Jesus  has 
escaped  me.  All  this  history,  which  at  a  distance  seems 
floating  in  the  clouds  of  an  unreal  world,  thus  assumed  a 
body,  a  solidity,  which  astonished  me.  The  striking  accord 
of  the  texts  and  the  places,  the  wonderful  harmony  of  the 
evangelical  ideal  with  the  landscape  which  served  as  its 
setting,  were  to  me  as  a  revelation.  I  had  before  my  eyes  a 
afth  Gospel,  torn,  but  still  legible,  and  thenceforth,  through 
Mie  narratives  of  Matthew  and  Mark,  instead  of  an  abstract 
being,  which  one  would  say  had  never  existed,  I  saw  a 
wonderful  human  form  live  and  move."  l 

*  Life  of  Jesus,  page  45.  We  find  in  an  English  Sunday-school  periodical 
A  homely  but  significant  illustration  of  the  power  of  a  knowledge  of  Scripture 
localities  to  confirm  onr  faith  in  the  sacred  record :  "  In  a  Yorkshire  village 
I  knew  one  Thomas  Walsh.  It  was  a  favorite  opinion  of  Walsh's  that  the  Bible 
vas  all  made  up.'  He  could  never  believe  it  was  written  where  it  professed 


102  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

JSTo  one  can  listen  to  the  lecture  of  Dr.  Hibbard  (author  of  a 
valuable  treatise  upon  the  Psalms)  upon  the  iour- 

ITibbard  and 

neyings  of  the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  illus- 
tiated  by  his  large  charts,  without  receiving  a  fresh  and  most. 

to  be,  and  by  the  men  said  to  have  written  it.  Walsh  owned  a  considerable 
part  of  a  factory,  and  one  year  he  set  his  heart  on  making  a  very  large  and  fine 
piece  of  cloth.  He  took  great  pains  with  the  carding,  spinning,  dyeing,  weav- 
ing, and  finishing  of  it.  In  the  process  of  manufacture  it  was  one  day  stretched 
out  on  the  tenter-hooks  to  dry.  It  made  a  fine  show,  and  he  felt  very  proud  of 
it.  The  next  morning  he  arose  early  to  work  at  it,  when,  to  his  amazement,  it 
was  gone  I  It  had  been  stolen  during  the  night.  After  weeks  of  anxiety  and 
expense,  a  piece  of  cloth,  answering  the  description,  was  stopped  at  Manchester, 
awaiting  the  owner  and  proof.  Away  to  Manchester  went  Thomas  as  fast  aa 
the  express  train  would  carry  him.  There  he  found  many  rolls  of  cloth  which 
had  been  stolen.  They  were  very  much  alike.  He  selected  one  which  he 
claimed  as  his.  But  how  could  he  prove  it  ?  In  doubt  and  perplexity  he  called 
on  his  neighbor  Stetson.  '  Friend  Stetson,  I  have  found  a  piece  of  cloth  which 
I  am  sure  is  the  one  which  was  stolen  from  me.  But  how  to  prove  it  is  the 
question.  Can  you  tell  me  how?1  'You  don't  want  it  unless  it  is  really 
yours  ? '  '  Certainly  not.'  '  And  you  want  proof  that  is  simple,  plain,  and 
such  as  will  satisfy  yourself  and  everybody  ? '  '  Precisely  so.'  '  Well,  take 
Bible  proof.'  'Bible  proof!  Pray,  what  is  that?'  'Take  your  cloth  to  the 
tenter-hooks  on  which  it  was  stretched,  and  if  it  is  yours  every  hook  will  just 
come  to  the  hole  through  which  it  passed  before  being  taken  down.  There  will 
be  scores  of  such  hooks,  and  if  the  hooks  and  holes  just  come  together  right,  no 
other  proof  that  the  cloth  is  yours  will  be  wanted.'  '  True.  Why  didn't  I 
think  of  this  before  ?'  Away  he  hastened,  and,  sure  enough,  every  hook  came 
to  its  little  hole,  and  the  cloth  was  proved  to  be  his,  and  the  thief  was  convict- 
ed, all  on  the  evidence  of  the  tenter-hooks.  Some  days  after  this,  Thomas 
again  hailed  his  friend.  '  I  say,  Stetson,  what  did  you  mean  by  calling  tenter- 
hooks proof,  the  other  day,  "  Bible  proof?  "  I  am  sure  if  I  had  the  good  evidence 
for  the  Bible  that  I  had  for  my  cloth,  I  would  never  doubt  it  again.'  '  You 
Lave  the  same,  only  better,  for  the  Bible.'  'How  so?'  'Pat  it  on  the  tenter- 
hooks. Take  the  Bible  and  travel  with  it ;  go  to  the  place  where  it  was 
made.  There  you  find  the  Ked  Sea,  the  Jordan,  the  Lake  of  Galilee,  Mounts 
Lebanon,  Hermon,  Carmel,  Tabor,  and  Gerizim ;  there  you  find  the  cities  of 
Damascus,  Hebron,  Tyre,  Sidon,  and  Jerusalem.  Every  mountain,  every  river, 
every  sheet  of  water  mentioned  in  the  Bible  is  there,  just  in  the  place  where  it 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD   OPENED.  103 

interesting  version  of  the  portions  of  the  Pentateuch  devoted 
to  a  record  of  these  wanderings  ;  and  the  map  drawings  and 
explanations  of  Rev.  J.  H.  Vincent  at  Sunday-school  institutes 
have  suggested  to  hundreds  the  invaluable  service  which  a 
familiar  knowledge  of  this  science  affords  the  interpreter  of 
Scripture. 

"It  is  a  common  remark  of  historians  concerning  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  Middle  Ages  that  their  devotion  was  astonish- 
ingly increased  by  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.     Effect  of  vis- 
iting      holy 
This  might  be  expected.     They  had  gone  over     places. 

the  hallowed  ground,  and  were  able  to  form  a  distinct  pic- 
ture of  it.  They  had  walked  the  streets  of  the  city  which 
their  divine  Saviour  had  honored  with  his  ministrations,  and 
trod  the  very  mount  on  which  he  had  been  lifted  up  between 
heaven  and  earth.  The  vivid  idea  of  the  localities  passed, 
by  an  easy  transition,  to  all  the  facts  and  doctrines  connected 
with  them,  and  the  felt  reality  of  Calvary  diffused  itself  over 
the  sufferings  which  a  thousand  years  before  had  been  en- 
dured there." 3 

As  an  instance  of  the  new  life  which  may  be  given  to  an 
ancient  event  let  us  extract  a  few  sentences  from  the  diary 
of  Dean  Stanley,  kept  during  his  memorable  tour  with  the 

is  located.  Sinai,  and  the  desert,  and  the  Dead  Sea  are  there ;  so  that  the  best 
guide-book  through  the  country  is  the  Bible.  It  must  have  been  written  there 
on  the  spot  just  as  your  cloth  must  have  been  made  and  stretched  on  your  ten- 
ter-hooks. That  land  is  the  mold  in  which  the  Bible  was  cast,  and  when 
brought  together  we  see  that  they  fit  together.  Tou  might  just  as  well  doubt 
that  your  cloth  was  fitted  to  your  hooks.'  'Well,  well,  I  confess  I  never 
thought  of  that.  Fll  think  it  over  again.  If  you  are  right,  why,  then,  I'm 
Wrong,  that's  all.' — Bible  C.  Magazine. 
2  Canon  and  Interpretation  of  Scripture.  By  PROF.  M'LELLANP,  page  137. 


104  THE   WOKD   OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Prince  of  Wales  over  Palestine.  We  should  be  glad,  had  we 
space,  to  introduce  the  entire  account  of  the  visit  to  the  old 
Abrahamic  city  of  Hebron.  After  leaving  the  mosque,  cover- 
ing, with  strong  evidences  of  probability,  the  cave  of  Machpe- 
lah,  where  reposes  the  dust  of  several  of  the  patriarchs  and 
their  wives,  they  "  rode  over  the  hills  south  of  Hebron  to  visit 
the  probable  scene  of  the  romantic  transaction,  recorded  in  the 
Caleb's  gift  to  book  of  Joshua  and  the  book  of  Judges,  between 

his    daughter 

Achsah.  Caleb  and  his  daughter  Achsah.3    A  wide  val- 

ley, unusually  green,  amid  the  barren  hills  of  the  '  south 
country,'  suddenly  breaks  down  into  an  almost  precipitous 
and  still  greener  ravine.  On  the  south  side  of  this  ravine  is 
a  village  called  Dura,  possibly  the  Adorami  of  the  book  of 
Chronicles ; 4  on  the  north,  at  the  summit  of  a  steeper  and 
more  rugged  ascent,  is  Dewer  Dan,  which  recalls  the  name  of 
Debir,  the  fortress  which  Othniel  stormed  on  the  condition  of 
winning  Achsah  for  his  bride.  '  Give  me,'  she  said  to  her 
father,  as  she  rode  on  her  ass  beside  him,  *  a  field,'  (a  bless- 
ing, a  rich  field,  such  as  that  which  lies  spread  in  the  green 
basin,  which  she  and  Caleb  would  first  encounter  in  their 
ride  from  Hebron,)  'for  thou  hast  given  me  a  south  land,' 
(these  dry  rocky  hills  \vhich  extend  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,  till  they  melt  into  the  hazy  platform  of  the  desert,) 
'give  me  also  the  bubbling*  of  water,  the  upper  and  lower 
Scenery  an-  bubblings.'  It  is  an  expressive  word,  (translated 
Scripture.  °f  m  our  version  upper  and  nether  springs,)  which 
seems  to  be  used  for  tumbling,  falling  waves,  and  is  thus 
especially  applicable  to  the  rare  sight  of  a  clear  rivulet  that, 

»  Josh,  xv,  16^-19 ;  Judges  i,  11-15.  4  2  Chron.  xi,  9. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  105 

rising  in  the  green  meadow  above  mentioned,  falls  and  flows 
continuously  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  ravine,  and  by  its 
upper  and  nether  streams  gives  verdure  to  the  whole.  The 
identification  is  not  perhaps  absolutely  certain,  but  the  scene 
lends  itself  to  the  incident  in  every  particular."  5 

The  full  effect  of  personal  examination  we  may  not  be  able 
to  enjoy ;  but  in  such  works  as  Dr.  Robinson's,  Works  that 
Dean  Stanley's,  Thomson's  "  The  Land  and  the  SKId  ^  of 

holy      locali- 

Book,"  and  Hitter's  Geography  of  Palestine,  we     ties> 
are  enabled  to  look  upon  sacred  localities  almost  as  distinctly 
as  if  we  gazed*upon  them  with  our  own  eyes.     All  fulfilled 
prophecy,  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  relating  to 
ancient  countries  and  cities,  finds  the  most  im-    importance  of 

this  as  to  ful- 

pressive  confirmation  in  the  present  appearance  gcy.d  prol)h" 
of  these  memorable  lands.  There  is  continued  reference  in 
the  Old  Testament  to  a  gigantic  race  beside  whom  the  Jewish 
spies  were  as  grasshoppers.6  They  were  the  original  inhabit- 
ants of  Bashan,  east  of  the  Jordan,  and  probably  of  Canaan. 
These  Scripture  statements  in  reference  to  the 

The  giants  of 

wonderful  height  and  strength  of  these  men  Basban- 
might  be  thought  exaggerated ;  but  the  memorials  of  them, 
says  Rev.  J.  L.  Porter,  are  to  be  found  in  every  section  of 
Palestine  in  the  form  of  graves  of  enormous  dimensions.  He 
personally  examined,  in  his  most  interesting  tour  through 
Bashan,  cities  built  and  occupied  by  them  forty  centuries  ago 
still  in  existence.  "I  have  traversed,"  he  says,  "their  streets, 
I  have  opened  the  doors  of  their  houses,  I  have  slept  peace- 
fully in  their  long-deserted  halls.  We  shall  see,  too,  that 

6  Sermons  in  the  East,  page  193.  *  Num.  xiii,  83. 


106  THE   WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

among  the  massive  ruins  of  these  wonderful  cities  lie  sculp- 
tured images  of  Astarte,  with  the  crescent  moon,  which  gave 
her  the  name  of  Carnaim,  upon  her  brow." 7 

In  the  final  conquest  of  Bashan,  in  the  small  province  of 
Argob,  it  is  said  in  Deuteronomy  that  Jair,  one  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  tribe  of  Manasseh,  took  no  less  than  sixty  great  cities, 
"  fenced  with  high  walls,  gates,  and  bars,  besides 
Bashan.  unwalled  towns  a  great  many." 8     Og,  the  last  of 

the  giants,  whose  bedstead  was  about  fourteen  feet  in  length 
and  six  in  breadth,  was  the  ruler  of  Bashan  at  this  time. 
"  Such  a  statement  as  this,"  says  Porter,  "  seems  all  but  in- 
credible. It  would  not  stand  the  arithmetic  of  Bishop 
Colenso  for  a  moment.  Often,  when  reading  the  passage,  I 
used  to  think  that  some  strange  mystery  hung  over  it,  for 
What  Porter  how  could  a  province  measuring  not  more  than 

eaw    in     Ba- 

Bhan-  thirty  miles  by  twenty  support  such  a  number 

of  fortified  cities,  especially  when  the  greater  part  of  it  was 
a  wilderness  of  rocks;  but  mysterious,  incredible  as  this 
seemed,  on  the  spot,  with  my  own  eyes,  /  have  seen  that  it  is 
literally  true.  The  cities  are  there  to  this  day.  Some  of 
them  retain  the  ancient  names  recorded  in  the  Bible." 9 

In  these  cities  and  the  beautiful  surrounding  fields  the 
tribes  of  Reuben,  Gad,  and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  natur- 
ally enough,  desired  to  settle.  "  Bashan  was  regarded  by 
Basil  an  in  the  the  prophets  of  Israel  as  an  earthly  paradise. 

poetry  of  the 

Bible.  The   strength   and  grandeur  of  its   oaks,10  the 

beauty  of  its  mountain  scenery,11  the  unrivaled  luxuriance  of 

7  Giant  Cities  of  Bashan,  page  12.  »  Deut.  in,  4,  5,  14. 

9  Giant  Cities  of  Bashan,  page  13.       10  Ezek.  xxvii,  6.       1 1  Psa.  Ixxviii,  15. 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  107 

its  pastures,12  the  fertility  of  its  wide-spreading  plains,  and 
the  excellence  of  its  cattle,13  all  supplied  the  sacred  penmen 
with  lofty  imagery.  Eemnants  of  the  oak  forests  still  clothe 
the  mountain  side;  the  soil  of  the  plains  and  the  pastures  on 
the  downs  are  rich  as  of  yore,  and  though  the  periodic  raids 
of  Arab  tribes  have  greatly  thinned  the  flocks 

Present     ap- 

an  d  herds,  as  they  have  desolated  the  cities,  yet     pearance- 
such  as  remain — the  rams  and  lambs,  and  goats  and  bulls — 
may  be  appropriately  described  in  the  words  of  Ezekiel  as 
all  of  them  fatlings  of  Bashan." 14 

In  his  very  interesting  travels  in  Arabia  PetraBa  John  L. 
Stephens,  Esq.,  visited  the  wonderful  but  now  vacant  city  of 
Petra,  whose  dwellings  and  temples  and  tombs, 

Stephens     in 

highly  sculptured  and  ornamented,  were  scooped  Petra* 
out  of  the  sides  of  the  mountain.  Upon  this  proud  city  of 
the  descendants  of  Esau,  in  the  mountains  of  Seir,  because 
they  refused  to  permit  Israel  to  pass  through  their  borders, 
the  Almighty  denounced  the  severest  judgments.  "  I  have 
sworn  by  myself,  saith  the  Lord,  that  Bozrah  (the  strong 
or  fortified  city)  shall  become  a  desolation,  a  Prophecies 

against    Idu- 

reproach,  a  waste,  and  a  curse ;  and  all  the  mea- 
cities  thereof  shall  be  perpetual  wastes.  Lo,  I  will  make 
thee  small  among  the  heathen,  and  despised  among  men. 
Thy  terribleness  hath  deceived  thee,  and  the  pride  of  thine 
heart,  O  thou  that  dweUest  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  that 
boldest  the  height  of  the  hill :  though  thou  shouldest  make 
thy  nest  as  high  as  the  eagle,  I  will  bring  thee  down  from 

i 2  jer.  1, 19.  ! 3  Psa.  xxii,  12 ;  Micah  vii,  14 

14  Ezek.  xxxix,  18.    Giant  Cities,  pages  14, 15. 


108  THE    WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

thence,  saitli  the  Lord." 16  "Thorns  shall  come  up  in  her  pal- 
aces, nettles  and  brambles  in  the  fortresses  thereof:  and  it 
shall  be  a  habitation  of  dragons,  and  a  court  for  owls." 16  "I 
would  that  the  skeptic,"  says  Stephens,  "  could  stand  as  I 
did  among  the  ruins  of  this  city  among  the  rocks,  and  there 
open  the  sacred  book  and  read  the  words  of  the 

The  lesson  to 

the  skeptic.  inspired  penman,  written  when  this  desolate 
place  was  one  of  the  greatest  cities  of  the  world.  I  see  the 
scoffer  arrested,  his  cheek  pale,  his  lip  quivering,  and  his 
heart  quaking  with  fear  as  the  ruined  city  cries  out  to  him 
in  a  voice  loud  and  powerful  as  that  of  one  risen  from  the 
dead ;  though  he  would  not  believe  Moses  and  the  prophets 
he  believes  the  handwriting  of  God  himself  in  the  desola- 
tion and  eternal  ruin  around  him."  17 

These  illustrations  will  serve  simply  to  indicate  how  valu- 
able a  service  a  knowledge  of  the  geography  and  present 
condition  of  scriptural  countries  will  render  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture.  Our  Christian  literature  is  crowded  with 
Better  read-  valuable  and  interesting  volumes  of  this  clescrip- 

ing  than 

usuaify  select6,  tion.  If  our  youug  people  would  throw  aside 
the  unsubstantial  and  exciting  tales  and  stories  that  come  in 
avalanches  from  the  press  at  the  present  time,  and  seek 
works  of  travel  in  their  stead,  they  would  soon  acquire  a 
taste  and  an  appetite  for  what  would  nourish  the  intellect 
and  quicken  the  spiritual  life. 

III.  It  is  necessary  also  to  have  some  knowl- 

Customs  and 

edge  of  the  customs  and  manners  of  the  people 

i 5  Jer.  xlix,  13, 15.  1 6  Isa.  xxxiv,  18. 

17  Travels  in  Egypt  and  Arabia  Petraea,  vol.  ii,  p.  58. 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.        109 

of  the  East.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  these  customs  to-day, 
in  a  large  degree,  are  the  same  as  those  in  Abraham's  time. 
The  Lord  has  permitted  these  habits  to  be  stereotyped  as  a 
standing  commentary  upon  and  illustration  of  his  word. 
Says  Sir  Samuel  W.  Baker,  the  celebrated  English  tourist,  in 
his  last  volume,  "  The  Nile  Tributaries  in  Abys-  Testimony  of 

Sir  S.  W.  Ba- 

sinia,"  referring  to  the  customs  of  the  native  ker- 
tribes,  "this  striking  similarity  to  the  descriptions  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  exceedingly  interesting  to  a  traveler  when 
residing  among  these  curious  and  original  people.  With  the 
Bible  in  one  hand  and  these  unchanged  tribes  before  the 
eyes,  there  is  a  thrilling  illustration  of  the  sacred  record  ;  the 
past  becomes  the  present ;  the  vail  of  three  thousand  years  is 
raised,  and  the  living  picture  is  a  witness  to  the  exactness  of 
the  historical  description.  At  the  same  time  there  is  a  light 
thrown  upon  many  obscure  passages  in  the  Old  Testament 
by  the  experience  of  the  present  customs  and  figures  of 
speech  of  the  Arabs,  which  are  precisely  those  that  were 
practiced  at  the  periods  described." 

The  Song  of  Solomon,  viewed  in  the  light  of  our  marriage 
service,  which  requires  for  its  performance  but  a 

Song  of  Solo- 
few  moments,  is  incomprehensible,  or  can  only 

be  conceived  of  as  a  sensuous  portrayal  of  marital  love  ;  but 
in  the  light  of  oriental  custom,  according  to  which  the  nup- 
ti  al  rites  extended  over  a  number  of  days,  which  were  passed 
in  delightful  companionship,  the  longing  of  the  Church  for  the 
coming  of  the  bridegroom,  the  prophetic  announcement  of  his 
approach,  the  joy  in  his  presence,  and  also  the  panting  of  the 
individual  soul  for  the  "Chiefest  among  ten  thousand,"  the 


110  THE   WOKD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

grief  at  his  delay,  the  holy  ecstasy  upon  his  approach,  are  all 
wonderfully  illustrated  in  the  protracted  and  elaborate  cere- 
monies and  triumphant  choruses  of  an  eastern  marriage. 
Several   of  the   most   impressive   parables   of  our   Lord 
require  for  their  exposition,  and  the  comprehen- 

Parables. 

sion  of  their  moral  lessons,  a  knowledge  of  these 
rites.  "What  is  written  in  the  Bible  must,  as  much  as  is 
We  must  see  needful,  ^e  placed  more  particularly  in  the  light 

what  is  writ-          «,,  «  ,  .   ,    ..   .      _  .    _     .          -,., 

ten    in    the     of  the  age  from  which  it  is  descended,  to  which 

light    of    the 

it  alludes,  and  of  which  it  speaks.  We  must 
pay  attention  to  the  civil,  social,  and  religious  conditions, 
ideas,  and  views  with  which  that  which  is  written  stands  in 
connection  in  any  way." 18  There  are  but  few  chapters  in 
the  Bible  for  the  clear  understanding  of  which  it  is  not 
necessary  to  be  acquainted  with  the  manners  and  customs  of 
the  East,  in  particular  of  the  Jews,  to  be  secured  against 
misunderstanding. 
For  illustration,  the  passage  recorded  in  John  i,  18, 

"  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father  "  referring 

Illustrations 

to  the  near  and  unshared  relation  of  the  Son  to 
the  Father,  is  illustrated  by  their  habit  of  reclining  at  the 
table.  John,  leaning  next  to  his  Master,  reclined  upon  his 
bosom,  and  heard  every  word  that  dropped  from  his  lips ;  so 
the  only-begotten  Son  rested  upon  the  bosom  of  the  Father, 
and  he  only  could  reveal  him  and  his  word  to  the  world. 
This  custom,  also,  causing  the  limbs  to  be  extended  upon  the 
couch  behind  them,  illustrates  the  ease  with  which  a  grateful 
penitent  could  bathe  the  Saviour's  feet  while  he  sat  at  meat, 
»8  Manual  of  Hermeneutics.  By  Dr.  Doedes,  page  109. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  Ill 

wipe  them  with  her  disheveled  hair,  or  anoint  them  with 
fragrant  and  precious  ointment.19 

The  breaking  of  bread,  which  is  referred  to  in  Matt,  xxvi, 
26,  and  parallel  passages,  where  it  is  said  Jesus 

Breaking     of 

broke  bread  at  the  institution  of  the  last  supper,  bread- 
is  a  very  natural  thing,  as  those  reclining  at  the  table  used  n>) 
knives,  and  therefore  bread  had  to  be  broken  to  be  distrib- 
uted. Very  easily  the  expression  came  to  signify  the  same 
as  to  eat,  or  to  keep  a  feast.20  "  He  who  does  not  think  of 
this,  or  does  not  know  it,  readily  finds  in  that  '  breaking  of 

bread'  a  symbol,  and  that  of  the  breaking  of     Error  as  ap- 
plied to 
Jesus's  body,  which,  however,  was  not  broken.     Christ's  body, 

(See  John  xix,  33,  36.)  In  1  Cor.  xi,  24,  the  word  '  broken  '  in 
the  words  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  supper  does  not 
belong  to  the  original  text."21  It  is  omitted  by  Alford, 
Tischendorf,  and  others,  in  their  editions  of  the  Greek  New 
Testament.  These  illustrations  might  readily  be  multiplied, 
but  enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  the  importance  of  the 
subject. 

IV.  The  Bible  is  full  of  symbols.    In  all  ages  men  have 
instinctively  recognized  in  physical  objects  and 

Symbols 

events  the  outward  expression  of  the  thoughts 
and  emotions  of  which  they  are  conscious  themselves,  or  ol 
which  they  have  perceived  signs  in  others.  "  Thus  the  sur 
is  the  acknowledged  emblem  of  power  and  creation,  the  tern 
pest  is  a  thunderbolt  of  wrath,  the  snow  a  symbol  of  purity, 
the  rainbow  of  promise  and  hope.  Spring-time  and  morning 
are  symbols  of  youth,  sunset  and  winter  of  age  and  death.  The 
"  Luke  vii,  38 ;  John  xil,  8.  20  Acts  ii,  46 ;  xx,  7.  «  Dr.  Doedea 

/?  ""      OF  THB 

I  UNIVERSITY  J 


112  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

mountains  naturally  suggest  the  idea  of  stability,  and  the  sea 
that  of  immensity.22  The  lion  is  a  symbol  of  fierceness,  the 
lamb  of  innocence,  the  fox  of  cunning,  the  wolf  of  rapacity, 
and  the  dove  of  gentleness.  In  the  Scriptures  the  horn  is  a 
symbol  of  strength  and  triumph,  wings  of  swiftness,  and  eyes 
of  intelligence.  Hardly  a  page  of  Scripture  can  be  found 
without  a  significant  symbol.  The  ceremonial  law  was  a 
The  ceremo-  collection  of  symbols.  Of  the  divine  symbols  set 

nial  law  sym- 
bolical, forth  in  the  costume  of  the  priests,  in  the  furni- 
ture of  the  tabernacle  and  temple,  in  the  various  sacrifices 
and  festivals,  the  writer  of  the  book  of  Hebrews  gives  a 
full  exposition.  We  should  not  attempt  to  go  further,  a? 
some  do,  with  a  '  zeal  not  according  to  knowledge,'  and  seek 
to  find  a  spiritual  meaning  in  the  most  trifling  details  of  the 
Symbols  may  Hebrew  sanctuary :  in  the  nails  by  which  the 

be  carried  to 

extremes.  covering  was  fastened  to  the  earth,  in  the  golden 
snuffers,  and  in  the  tinkling  bells  upon  the  priestly  robes. 
The  writer  heard  a  very  earnest  and  very  popular  young 
divine,  before  a  great  body  of  Bible  teachers,  affirm  that  there 
was  nothing,  not  even  the  simplest  arrangement  of  the  taber- 
nacle, but  had  a  spiritual  application;  which  was  simply 
nonsense.  The  author  of  the  book  of  Hebrews  shows  that 
the  Jewish  service,  taken  as  a  whole,  was  a  symbol  of  the 
what  Hebrews  ^osPel>  an(*  was  replete  with  a  spiritual  meaning 
under  material  forms.  It  has  been  happily  said 
that  the  best  commentary  upon  the  book  of  Leviticus  is  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ;  and,  what  can  be  said  of  no  other 
commentary,  it  is  inspired.  As  a  general  principle,  it  may  be 
22  Symbols  of  Christendom.  By  J.  R.  THOMPSON,  M.  A. 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.        113 

held  unsafe  to  find  any  types  in  Old  Testament  characters, 
as  Adam,  Noah,  Joseph,  David,  not  affirmed  to  be  such  by 
the  Scriptures  themselves. 

Throughout  the  Bible,  numbers,  unless  it  is  definitely  stated 
or  clearly  to  be  inferred  that  they  are  to  be  taken 

Symbolical 

literally,  are  used  symbolically.  Seven  is  constantly     num 
used  in  this  way  to  signify  a  complete  or  perfect  number. 
Thus  we  read  of  seven  lamps,  seven  stars,  seven 

The  number 

kings,  seven  diadems,  seven  hills,  seven  golden 

vials,  seven  angels,  and  seven  spirits  of  God.      The  number 

twelve,  as  a  complete  number,  we  find  multiplied 'into 

Twelve. 

itself  in  the  reckoning  of  the  ransomed  of  Israel,  who 
are  estimated  at  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand.    Forty 
means  many.     The  city  of  Persepolis,  in  eastern  language,  is 
called  "  the  city  of  forty  towers,"  though  the  number 

Forty. 

is  much  larger.     This  is  probably  the  meaning  in 
2  Kings  viii,  9,  where  Hazael  is  said  to  have  brought  as  a 
present  to  Elisha  forty  camels'  burden  of  the  good  things  of 
Damascus.     Seventy  is  used  to  express  a  large,  complete,  but 

uncertain  number.    We  are  commanded  to  forgive  till 

Seventy, 
seventy  times  seven,  to  indicate  that  if  our  brother 

repent  of  his  fault  there  must  be  no  narrow  limit  to  his  for- 
giveness. The  rude  reckoning  of  a  year  was  three  hundred  and 
sixty  days ;  this  multiplied  by  three  and  a  half  (a  The  three 

hundred   find 

time,  times,  and  half  a  time)  gives  twelve  hundred     sixty  days- 
and  sixty,  the  famous  prophetic  and  symbolic  number  which 
has  given  rise  to  so  much  conjecture.     The  Hebrew  letters 
which  form  the  word  corresponding  to  "  mys- 

•'  Six    hundred 

tery"  represent,  when  employed  as  numerals,  the     andsixty-six 


114  THE   WOKD    OF    GOD   OPENED. 

mystic  number  six  hundred  and  sixty-six.23  How  astonish- 
ing that  any  one  should  build  up  a  mathematical  plan  of  the 
world's  duration,  upon  such  confessedly  symbolical  figures, 
of  the  exact  value  of  which  inspiration  has  given  no  measure. 
Natural  phenomena  are  constantly  used  as  symbols  in  the 

Old  and  New  Testaments.     The  sun  is  an  em- 
Natural  sym- 

blem  of  glory  and  strength,  the  morning  star  of 

beauteous  promise,  the  rainbow  of  God's  covenant  of  mercy. 

In  the  Book  of  Revelation  there  are  many  symbols  portending 

calamity,  such  as  lightning  and  thunder,  winds,  fire   and 

brimstone,   the   blackened   sun,  the  blood-red  moon,  stars 

burning  or  falling  from  heaven,  earthquake,  fire,  and  flame. 

Animals  and  their  bodily  members  play  a  large  part  in  the 

prophetical  and  poetical  Scriptures.     The  four 

Animal  sym- 

bols<  living  ones  ("  beasts"  in  our  version)  of  Ezekiel 

have  given  rise  to  volumes  of  controversy ;  they  probably 
symbolize  the  whole  animated  creation.  The  white  horse  is 
the  emblem  of  victory,  the  red  of  war,  the  black  of  famine, 
and  the  pale  of  death.  The  ferocity  of  the  leopard  and  the 
bear,  the  headstrong  push  of  the'  ram,  the  deadly  bite  of  the 
scorpion,  the  destructiveness  of  locust-swarms,  the  deadly 
power  of  the  serpent,  furnish  the  key  to  their  symbolic 
employment  in  prophecy.24 

Jerusalem,  the  metropolis  of  the  Land  of  Promise,  and  the 
Jerusalem  and     place  where  the  Lord  especially  recorded  his 

Babylon    sym- 

Church?  the  name  and  manifested  his  presence,  is  often  used 
to  symbolize  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  ideal  perfectness  of 
her  situation,  economy,  rule,  and  security.  On  the  other 

«  Symbols  of  Christendom.  24  Ibid. 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  115 

Land,  Babylon,  to  the  Jewish  mind  a  name  of  ill  omen, 
suggesting  a  memory  of  captivity,  idolatry,  and  shame,  is 
the  personification  of  that  sinful  society  which  opposes  and 
harasses  the  Church.  The  terms  Sodom  and  Egypt,  for  the 
same  reasons,  are  used  for  the  same  purpose. 

The  emblems  of  earthly  royalty  are  freely  employed  in 
Scripture  to  denote  the  authority  and  reign  of 

Earthly    roy- 

God  and  of  created  invisible  powers.  Many 
diadems  upon  one  head  denote  plurality  of  dominion,  which 
the  pope  of  Rome  still  symbolizes  in  his  triple  crown  or 
tiara.  The  iron  scepter  is  the  symbol  of  severity,  as  the 
Psalmist  predicts :  "  He  shall  rule  the  nations  with  a 
rod  of  iron."  The  sword  is  the  universal  emblem  of 
war;  he  who  bears  the  sword  is  mighty  to  oppose  and 
to  subdue.  "  The  sword  going  out  of  the  mouth "  is  sym- 
bolical of  the  power  attending  the  words  of  the  august 
Speaker. 

"  The  harvest  and  the  vintage  were,  among  the  Jews,  the 
chief  seasons  of  agricultural  festivity.     In  the 

The    vintage 

symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  corn  harvest  and  harvest- 
and  the  subsequent  garnering  denote  the  spiritual  maturity 
and  the  eternal  safety  of  Christ's  people ;  the  vintage,  on  the 
other  hand,  figures  forth  ripeness  unto  wrath ;  the  treading 
of  the  grapes  in  the  wine-press  emblematizing  the  severity  of 
the  inevitable  and  divine  vengeance.  The  sharp  sickle  is 
common  to  both,  being  the  instrument  in  the  one  case  of 
salvation,  in  the  other  of  destruction.  The  vials 

The  vials. 

which  were  emptied  by  the  angels  upon  the  earth 

were  not  what  we  understand  by  that  term  in  English ;  they 


116  THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

Were  the  Latin  paterce,  broad,  flat  bowls  or  dishes,  used  both 

in  worship   and  in  household  affairs."25    The  harp  is  an 

emblem  of  joy  and  praise :  the  scroll,  or  book, 

Harp,     keys, 

of  purposes  and  decrees ;  the  seal  upon  it 
denotes  secresy.  Keys  signify  power  to  admit  and  exclude ; 
a  gem  or  wrhite  stone,  acquittal,  friendship,  or  felicity.  By 
eating  a  book,  or  scroll,  is  intended  participation  in  the 
divine  purposes ;  by  drinking  the  wine  of  wrath  and  the 
cup  of  vengeance,  the  enduring  of  the  divine  displeasure. 
The  bride  is  the  pure,  chosen,  and  beloved 

The  bride. 

Church  of  Christ.  The  Church  is  also  repre- 
sented under  the  similitude  of  the  woman  clothed  with  the 
sun.  The  harlot  is  the  idolatrous,  antichristian  body  tempt- 
ing the  true  Church  to  forsake  the  Lord.26 

The  great  battle  between  truth  and  error  is  set  forth  in  the 
Revelation  in  symbols  taken  from  the  prophecy 

Battle  of  Ar-  J  r        J 

mageddon.          Qf  Ezekiel?    in    wMch   the    forceg    of    Gog    and 

Magog  represent  the  combined  hosts  of  error  gathered  from 
every  quarter.  Of  its  final  result  the  Church  of  Christ  is  left 
in  no  anxious  doubt.  It  often  occurs  in  the  Old  Testament 
that  the  prophets  predict  the  judgments  which  God  is  about 
to  visit  upon  the  nations  by  symbolical  acts,  as 

Symbolical 

acts-  where  Isaiah  is  directed  to  "  loose  the  sackcloth 

from  his  loins,"  to  "  put  off  the  shoe  from  his  foot,"  and  he  is 
Walking  said    to   have    done    so   "walking  naked   and 

naked       and 

barefoot,          barefoot  three  years  a  sign  and  a   wonder."2 

Evidently  this  was  not  actually  done  by  the  prophet,  for  it 

would  have  been  a  shameful  exposure  of  his  person ;  but  the 

38  J.  R.  Thompson.  2«  Ibid.  a7  Isa.  xx. 


THE   WOED   OF   GOD    OPENED.  117 

symbolic  picture  is  presented,  illustrating  the  judgments  cf 
God  about  to  be  brought  upon  Egypt  and  Ethiopia.  Ere 
long  they  would  be  conquered  in  battle,  made  captives,  and 
be  led  forth  "  naked  and  barefoot,  even  with  their  buttocks 
uncovered,  to  the  shame  of  Egypt."  Thus  by  this  pictured 
symbol  a  shameful  uncovering  or  a  disgraceful  humiliation  of 
the  proud  idolatrous  powers  upon  whom  Israel  was  inclined 
to  lean  for  support  in  her  threatened  invasions  from  the  East, 
is  pointed  out.  If  the  prophet  had  simply  exposed  himself 
in  this  manner  no  one  would  have  connected  his  shame  with 
that  of  the  designated  countries  ;  or,  if  he  had  symbolical 

only,  or  with- 

declared  this,  his  constant  appearance  for  three     out  force, 
years  would  have  utterly  destroyed  its  inipressiveness.     It 
was  simply  a  symbolized  prophecy. 

Thus  also  the  symbolical  marriage  of  the  prophet  to  the 
prophetess,28  and  the  birth  of  a  son  with  a  syrn-     Marriage   of 

the  prophet  to 

bolic  name,  could  not  have  been  a  literal  occur-  JjjJ.  prophet- 
rence,  because  such  a  course  would  have  been  simply  adultery, 
as  evidently  the  prophetess  was  not  of  his  family.  The  object 
of  the  prophetic  warning  was  to  show  the  Jewish  people  that 
a  certain  overthrow  would  be  speedily  visited  upon  the 
combined  powers  of  Samaria  and  Damascus.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  prophet  is  led  by  God  to  the  prophetess,  that  by  the 
conjunction  of  a  twofold  prophetical  character  in  the  parent- 
age there  might  be  a  birth  in  the  strongest  sense  prophetical. 
The  name  of  the  child  is  significant  as  translated :  Jiasten, 
spoil,  quick  prey.  Before  the  predictive  child  should  be  able 
to  cry  "My  father,1'  God  declares  by  Isaiah,  that  both  Syria 
28  Isaiah  viii,  1-51. 


118  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

and  Damascus  shall  have  fallen  under  the  stroke  of  Assyria, 
As  a  predictive  symbol,  the  prophecy  is  impressive ;  as  an 
actual  fact,  it  would  have  been  inconsistent,  criminal,  and 
without  power  to  awaken  conviction.29 

These  illustrations  will  afford  aid  in  the  consideration  of 
many  symbolical  prophecies  which,  literally  understood, 
shock  the  moral  sense,  but  considered  simply  as  picturesque 
and  significant  signs  are  striking  and  full  of  force.  "  Hosea," 
for  example,  "  is  commanded  to  marry  two  impure  women ; 
Symbols  of  Ezekiel  to  lie  on  his  left  side  three  hundred  and 

Hosea  and 

ninety  days,  looking  at  an  iron  pan,  then  turn 
over  to  his  right  side,  on  which  he  must  lie  forty  additional 
days,  eating  during  the  whole  period  a  compost  of  lentiles, 
beans,  barley,  millet,  and  fitches,  prepared  in  a  manner  most 
decidedly  offensive.  We  afiirm  boldly  that  the  expositors 
who  consider  these,  and  others  which  might  be  mentioned, 
as  real  transactions,  dishonor  the  word  of  God,  while  they 
betray  a  want  of  taste  that  is  astounding.  Beyond  all  doubt, 
they  were  symbolical  representations  that  passed  before  the 
prophet's  mind  in  his  inspired  ecstasy." 30 

It  will  be  seen  how  modestly  and  carefully  these  scriptural 
symbols  must  be  used.  Many  enthusiastic  symbolists  have 
Symbols  staked  their  reputation  upon  views  of  the  future 

should  be  in- 

gSecareWlth  depending  upon  their  proper  rendering  of  these 
often  mysterious  symbols,  and  have  been  terribly  abased  by 
the  result.  What  is  distinctly  revealed  is  for  us  and  our 
children ;  but  what  God  has  seen  fit  to  vail  we  are  to  receive 
as  indistinct  disclosures  of  divine  purposes,  held  out  as  great 
89  Fairbairn  on  Prophecy,  page  501.  80  Canon  and  Interpretation,  page  205. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  119 

but  distant  lights  for  the  direction  and  encouragement  of 
the  Church. 

V.  "We  will  refer  to  but  one  other  preliminary  requisite  to 
the  safe  interpretation  of  the  holy  records,  and    Must    be    in 

sympathy  with 

that  is,  that  we  should  endeavor  to  be  in  sympa-  fers?d  wn" 
thy  in  thought  and  feeling  with  the  sacred  writers.  This  is 
necessary  in  reference  to  any  ancient  or  foreign  author. 
"  Language,"  says  Fairbairn,  "  is  but  the  utterance  of  thought 
and  feeling  on  the  part  of  one  person  to  another,  and  the 
more  we  can  identify  ourselves  with  the  state  of  mind  out  of 
which  that  thought  and  feeling  arose  the  more  manifestly 
shall  we  be  qualified  for  appreciating  the  language  in  which 
they  are  embodied,  and  reproducing  true  and  living  impres- 
sions of  it." 81 

Thus  Hagenbach  remarks  in  his  Encyclopedia,  "  An  inward 
interest  in  the  doctrine  of  theology  is  needful  for     Hagenbach 

upon   inward 

a  biblical  interpreter.  As  we  say  that  a  philo-  interest, 
sophical  spirit  is  demanded  for  the  study  of  Plato,  a  poetical 
taste  for  the  reading  of  Homer  or  Pindar,  a  sensibility  to  wit 
and  satire  for  the  perusal  of  Lucian,  a  patriotic  sentiment  for 
the  enjoyment  of  Sallust  and  Tacitus,  equally  certain  is  it 
that  fitness  to  understand  the  profound  truths  of  Scripture 
presupposes,  as  an  indispensable  requisite,  a  sentiment  of 
piety,  an  inward  religious  experience."  The  excellent  Ne- 
ander's  motto  was,  "  Pectus  est  quod  theologium 

Motto  of  Ne- 
facit :"  "  It  is  the  heart  that  makes  the  theology."     ander> 

It  is  the  want  of  this  living  sympathy  and  divine  experience 

that  renders  certain,  otherwise  so  intelligent,  scholars  blind 

91  H^nneneutical  Manual,  page  80. 


120  THE   WORD    OF  GOD   OPENED. 

to  the  significant  meaning  of  the  Scriptures.     The  learned 
but  rationalistic  Dr.  Paulus,  of  Heidelberg,  upon 

Dr.  Paulus. 

the  passage,  "Blessed  art  thou,  for  flesh  and 
blood  have  not  revealed  it  to  thee,  but  my  Father  that  is  in 
heaven,"  can  see  nothing  more  than  a  reference  to  the  force 
of  circumstances  in  awakening  the  mind  toward  what  is 
good ;  and  in  the  words,  "  I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that 
sent  me  while  it  is  day ;  the  night  cometh  when  no  man 
can  work ;"  all  the  sense  he  can  find  is,  "  I  must  heal 
the  diseased  eyes  before  the  evening  twilight  conies  on, 
because  when  it  is  dark  we  can  no  longer  see  to  work.'1 3a 

Thus  it  ever  has  been,  and  always  will  be,  as 

What    Jesus 

Jesus  said  when  upon  earth,  "  Thou  hast  hid 
these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  revealed  them 
unto  babes." 

"  When  the  Christian  reads,"  says  Dr.  Stowe,  "  what  Jesus 
said  to  Martha,  '  one  thing  is  needful?  his  own  Christian  con- 
sciousness teaches  him  that  true  religion,  the  love  of  Christ, 
is  here  meant  as  the  one  thing  needful,  and  both  grammar 
and  lexicography  sustain  his  position ;  but  Paulus,  who  has 
no  Christian  consciousness,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term, 
can  see  in  these  words  nothing  more  than  a  declaration  from 
the  intellectual  and  temperate  Kabbi  to  the  anxious  woman 
cumbered  about  much  serving,  and  eager  to  prepare  a 
sumptuous  entertainment  for  her  beloved  teacher,  that  one 
dish  is  enough  for  supper,  nor  can  grammar  and  lexicon 
alone  prove  the  interpretation  to  be  wrong." 3S 

Dr.  Goulburn  starts  the  inquiry  why  the  Bible  offers  so 

M  Dr.  Fairbairn.  83  Bibliotheca  Sacra- 


THE   WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED.  121 

little  attraction  to  most  persons,  and  why  they     Answer     to 

query  .why  so 

seem  to  gather  their  theological  views  from  any  in^the  WM?? 
other  source  rather  than  the  Bible,  and  answers  it  thus : 
"  It  is,  I  fear,  that  we  are  interested  in  theology,  and  not  in 
religion  ;  in  questions  and  controversies  rather  than  in  godly 
edifying  which  is  in  faith.  Our  minds  are  interested,  and  we 
read  religious  works  to  feed  and  stimulate  them.  Our  hearts 
are  comparatively  uninterested,  and  so  the  light  of  the  heart, 
the  food  of  the  heart,  the  joy  of  the  heart,  the  comfort  of  the 
heart,  are  reckoned  cheap  and  common  things  in  our  eyes." 

We  need  the  presence  and  inward  aid  of  the 

Men  need  the 

Holy  Spirit  in  order  clearly  to  apprehend  re- 
vealed truth,  "  for  what  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man 
save  the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him  ?  even  so  the  things  of 
God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  Spirit  of  God." S4  The  Scrip- 
tures cannot  be  deeply  and  perfectly  understood  except  by 
the  guidance  of  the  same  mind  which  inspired  ofhet)len^pr 
them.  The  letter  of  the  Scriptures  may  be  familiar  uUghetenUus.en" 
to  us  from  our  youth  upward,  but  to  God's  own  thought  and 
counsel  we  shall  be  strangers  until  the  Holy  Spirit,  by 'his 
divine  communications,  reveals  them  to  our  souls.  Dr.  Goul- 
bum  happily  illustrates  this  truth  by  comparing  the  Bible  to 
a  sun-dial,  which  is  in  itself  perfect  and  com- 

This  truth  il- 

plete,  graven  with  all  the  hours,  and  with  a  lustrated- 
gnomon  or  index,  which  casts  an  exact  shadow ;  but  what 
avails  a  sun-dial  without  light  ?  On  a  cloudy  day,  in  the 
twilight,  or  at  midnight,  it  cannot  inform  us  of  the  time ;  so 
the  Bible  is  the  chart  of  life,  and  is  "  able  to  make  us  wise 
»«1  Cor.  ii,  11. 


122  THE   WOKD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

unto  salvation ;"  but  its  one  indispensable  condition  is,  that 

the  Spirit,  while  we  are  reading  it,  shall  be  shining  upon  the 

heart.     The  Psalmist  seems  to  have  regard  to  this  double 

necessity  when  he  prays,  "O  send  out  thy  light 

Prayer  of  the 

and  thy  truth,  that  they  may  lead  me  and  bring 
me  to  thy  holy  hill ! " 

To  guard  against  any  misapprehension  of  the  character  of 
this  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  enlightening  the  mind  in  answer 
Nature  of  this  to  prayer,  it  is  proper  to  remark  that  one  is  not 

work   of    the 

Spirit.  to  expect  after  he  has  prayed  "  any  sudden  influx 

of  a  wonderful  light,  quite  distinct  from  the  ordinary  powers 
of  reflection  and  memory.  The  Holy  Spirit  acts  upon  the 
mind  through  the  ordinary  mental  faculties,-  not  without 
Spirit  acts  them,  or  independently  of  them.  When,  after 

tlit-oitgh    the 

mind.  careful,  patient,  and  prayerful  thought,  or  after 

an  effort  of  the  imagination  to  realize  some  scriptural  narra- 
tive in  all  its  details,  we  find  that  the  difficulties,  one  after 
another,  begin  to  clear  up,  like  clouds  rolling  away  from  the 
bosom  of  a  mountain,  and  revealing  patches  of  verdure  smit- 
ten with  the  sunbeam ;  or  when  memory  recalls  some  appo- 
site allusion  elsewhere,  or  some  illustrative  experience, 
through  which  we  ourselves  have  passed — the  light  so  vouch- 
safed is  undistinguishable  in  our  consciousness  from  that 
which  is  supplied  by  our  natural  faculties;  it  is  supplied 
through  them,  they  being  called  into  operation  and  assisted 
by  grace,  whose  primary  actings  are  in  the  abyssrnal  depths 
of  the  mind,  far  beyond  the  ken  of  the  keenest  self- 
intuition."  35 

88  Devotional  Study  of  the  Scripture* 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  123 

Whatever  other  source  of  information  may  be  beyond  the 

teacher's  reach  in  entering  upon  the  work  of  in-     This  grace  al- 
ways proffer- 
terpreting  Scripture,  this  highest  source  of  spir-     ed  to  us. 

itual  illumination  is  ever  open  and  ever  available,  for  saith 
our  Lord,  "If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good 
gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  heav- 
enly Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him." 3* 
"  Luke  xi,  13. 


THE   WOKD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 


T 


CHAPTER    VI. 

BULES   OF   INTERPRETATION. 

RULE  I. 

HE  literal  meaning  is  to  be  given  to  all  words, 
unless  it  will  cause  them  to  express  what  is  in- 
consistent with  universal  experience  as  to  the  na- 
ture of  things,  or  with  the  declared  opinions  of 
the  sacred  writers  in  other  passages,  or  at  variance 
with  the  evident  scope  of  the  passage  itself. 

Always  recollecting  that  the  Scriptures  are  for  the  most 
part  written  in  the  language  of  common  life,  unless  we  find 
Obvious  mean-  positive  qualifying  reasons  apparent  the  obvious 

ing    the    true 

one.  and  common-sense  significance  of  the  language 

of  the  sacred  writers  is  to  be  received  as  the  true  meaning. 
We  are  not  to  apply  a  sense  to  the  words  that  will  best  suit 
our  opinion  of  what  should  have  been  said,  or  what  we 
desire  should  be  said;  but  our  only  inquiry  is,  What  did 
Bensei  on  they  say  ?  Bengel  was  accustomed  to  say,  "  It  is 

holding        to 

Scripture  text,  better  to  run  all  lengths  with  Scripture  truth  in 
a  natural  and  open  manner  than  to  shift  and  twist  and 
accommodate.  Every  single  truth  is  a  light  of  itself,  and 
every  error,  however  minute,  is  darkness  as  far  as  it  goes." l 

1  Of  the  various  opinions  that  have  been  forced  upon  the  simple  utterances 
of  Scripture  Dr.  Stowe  remarks:  "As  an  illustration  of  this,  read  such  works 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  125 

Melanchthon,  the  St.  John  of  the  Reformation  in  spirit,  and 
its  scholar  in  literature,  says  in  his  Elements 

Melanchthon. 

of  Rhetoric,    "  The  sense   of  Scripture   is   one, 

certain,  and  simple,  and  is  every  where  to  be  ascertained 

in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  grammar  and  human 

discourse." 

The  reformer  himself  says,  with  characteristic  earnestness : 
"  We  must  not  make  God's  word  mean  what  we 

Martin 

wish ;  we  must  not  bend  it,  but  allow  it  to  bend  Lutner- 
us;  and  give  it  the  honor  of  being  better  than  we  could 
make  it,  so  that  we  must  let  it  stand." 

The  simplest  and  most  natural  meaning  that  flows  from 

• 

as  Owen  on  the  Hebrews,  or  M'Knight  on  the  Epistles.  Able  books  in  their 
way,  and  showing  no  small  amount  of  intellectual  acumen  and  industrious 
scholarship;  but  how  many  things  they  think  of,  how  many  arguments  they 
have,  how  much  meaning  they  will  find  in  Paul,  at  which  the  apostle  himself 
would  be  astonished  with  great  astonishment  if  he  knew  it  were  attributed  to 
him  1  The  same  is  true  of  some  of  the  purest  and  strongest  of  our  New  En- 
gland writers.  If  Moses  and  Isaiah  and  David  and  John  and  Paul  had  been 
natives  of  New  England,  habituated  to  the  New  England  modes  of  thought, 
educated  in  New  England  colleges,  and  settled  ministers  over  New  England 
parishes,  these  expositions  of  our  excellent  fathers  would  have  been  very  cor- 
rect ;  but  as  matters  are,  they  in  many  cases  rather  project  themselves  than 
expound  the  sacred  writers.  Dr.  Burton,  in  his  proof-texts  for  the  Taste  Scheme, 
has  the  most  comforting  conviction  that  the  apostle  Paul  was  full  of  the  same 
philosophy  with  himself;  and  Dr.  Emmons,  in  his  Scriptural  proofs  of  tho 
Exercise  Scheme,  has  the  most  unflinching  assurance  that  the  apostle  Paul  was 
clearly  and  heartily  an  exerciser ;  but  I  suspect  the  apostle  would  be  greatly 
surprised  to  learn  that  he  was  either  the  one  or  the  other,  and  as  much  con- 
founded if  the  question  were  put  to  him  which  he  was,  as  if  he  were  asked 
whether  he  were  a  Lockeian  or  a  Coleridgeite.  Those  questions  were  not  up  in 
his  day,  nor  did  the  apostle's  reasoning  run  on  those  lines.  Tou  might  as  well 
start  the  question  whether  he  journeyed  from  Miletus  to  Jerusalem  on  a  rail- 
road  or  in  a  steamboat,  and  adduce  long  and  learned  arguments  in  favor  of  one 
of  these  hypotheses  and  against  the  other/1— Billiotkeca  Sacra,  vol.  x,  p.  4& 


126  THE   WOKD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

the  words,  giving  the  least  impression  of  constraint  or 
The  simplest  uncommon  use,  may,  other  things  being  equal, 

meaning    the 

true  one.  ke  relied  upon  as  the  sense  in  which  the  words 
are  to  be  understood.  The  writers  were  from  comparatively 
humble  ranks  in  life.  "  Their  manners  and  habits,  their 
The  writers  modes  of  conception  and  forms  of  speech,  are 

men  of  hum* 

bie  origin.  such  as  usually  belong  to  persons  similarly  cir- 
cumstanced ;  that  is,  they  partake,  not  of  the  polish  and  re- 
finement, the  art  and  subtlety,  which  too  commonly  mark 
the  footsteps  of  high  cultivation  and  luxurious  living,  but  of 
the  free,  the  open,  the  natural,  as  of  persons  accustomed 
frankly  to  express,  not  to  conceal,  their  emotions,  or  to  wrap 
their  sentiments  in  disguise." 2 

REMAUK  1.   Where,  however,  the  literal  meaning  asserts  that 
when  literal     which  is  known  to  l)e  impossible  it  must  ~be  given 

meaning    as- 

posSbiuty  *"?{     UP  >  ^  ™  Gwfatfty  then  a  symbolical  or  figurative 

must  be  given  .      ... 

up.  expression.    As,  for  illustration,  when  the  psalm- 

ist says,  "  The  wicked  are  estranged  from  the  womb ;  they 
go  astray  as  soon  as  they  be  born,  speaking  lies." 3  The 
literal  meaning  is  impossible  here,  for  no  one  can  speak  lies 
from  the  moment  of  birth ;  while  the  truth  taught,  that  the 
depraved  heart  from  the  first  leads  the  unregenerate  person 
astray,  is  readily  understood.  In  Jeremiah's  prophecy  we  read, 
"  They  have  sown  wheat,  but  shall  reap  thorns." 4  Wheat 
seed  would  never  be  followed  by  a  harvest  of  thorns ;  but  the 
expectation  which  they  cherished  of  a  bountiful  and  whole- 
some return  from  their  labors  would  be  blasted. 

"  When  it  is  said  in  1  Cor.  xv,  22,  '  For  as  in  Adam  all 

3  Fail-bairn's  Henneneutical  Manual.  s  Psa.  Iviii,  8.  <  Jer.  xii,  ia 


THE  WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  127 

die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive,'  these  words, 
as  in  Adam  all  die,  cannot  be  intended  to  affirm     illustration 

from  1  Cor. 

that  all  men  existed  in  Adam,  nor  that  they  xv>22- 
all  sinned  in  his  person,  nor  that  they  all  died  when  he  died. 
These  are  known  impossibilities.  One  person  cannot  be  all 
mankind ;  all  mankind  cannot  be  one  person.  Men  cannot 
exist  before  they  exist ;  they  cannot  die  before  they  live ;  they 
cannot  sin  before  they  act." 6  Some  other  meaning,  therefore, 
which  the  Scriptures  themselves  would  naturally  afford,  must 
be  found  for  this  expression.  So  when,  in  Matthew  x,  34, 

Christ  tells  his  disciples  that  "  he  came  not  to     Christ   send- 
ing a  "sword" 

send  peace  on  earth,  but  a  sword,"  no  justifica-  j52J&^onn0 
tion  from  the  literal  rendering  can  be  found  for  tion. 
the  violent  persecution  of  those  esteemed  to  be  Christ's 
enemies;  but  history  interprets  clearly  its  meaning.  The 
Gospel  has  ever  occasioned  differences  and  discords  in  fam- 
ilies and  nations  by  inducing  some  to  accept  its  self-denying- 
truth ;  while  others  have  rejected  it,  and  have  bitterly  opposed 
its  friends. 

"  When  David  says  that  '  he  is  poured  out  like  water,  and 
all  his  bones  are  out  of  joint;  that  his  heart  is     j)avid  "pour- 

ed     out    like 

melted  in  the  midst  of  his  bowels,'  we  perceive     water." 
instantly  that  a  literal  pouring  out  and  melting  cannot  be 
meant,  as  nothing  of  the  kind  has  ever   been  witnessed. 
When  the  Redeemer,  in  the  institution  of  the     The      bread 

and  wine    in 

supper,  declares  of  the  bread  that  it  is  his  body,     Sent  Bacra" 

and  of  the  wine  that  it  is  his  blood,  we  necessarily  understand 

him   to  be   speaking    figuratively  and    symbolically.      My 

'Dobte. 


128  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

senses  distinctly  see,  taste,  smell,  and  feel  that  the  sacra- 
mental elements  are  nothing  but  real  bread  and  wine.  If  the 
Scriptures  really  taught  the  Popish  doctiine  of  transubstan- 
tiation  they  would  declare  a  falsehood,  which  would  be 
quite  sufficient  by  itself  to  destroy  their  authority.  If  my 
senses  may  deceive  me,  how  shall  I  convince  myself  that  I 
ever  saw  a  book  called  the  Bible,  or  read  it,  or  ever  heard  of 
such  a  being  as  Jesus  Christ."  6 

Thus  says  the  spiritual  and  learned  Augustine,  a  bishop  of 
AupusMne  on     the   Church  before  it  became  corrupted,  upon 

the  body  and 

blood.  the  passage  in  St.  John's  Gospel  in  reference  to 

eating  the  flesh  and  drinking  the  blood  of  Christ :  "  It  ap- 
pears to  order  a  wicked  and  abominable  action  ;  it  is,  there- 
fore, a  figure  teaching  that  we  must  communicate  with  our 
Lord's  passion,  and  have  it  sweetly  and  properly  laid  up  in 
our  memory  that  his  flesh  was  crucified  and  wounded  for  us." 
"We  may  readily  decide  whether  a  passage  is  figurative  or 
How  to  know  literal  by  asking  the  question  :  If  the  words  are 

a     figurative 

expression.  taken  just  as  they  stand,  will  the  idea  expressed 
be  true,  or  contrary  to  experience  and  the  nature  of  things  ? 
When  Jesus  calls  his  disciples  his  sheep,  we  cannot  doubt 
that,  by  a  significant  figure,  he  suggests  his  affection  for 
The  disciples  them  and  his  care  of  them,  and  their  confidence 

the    "sheep" 

of  Jesus.  in  and  attachment  to  him;  and,  also,  the  quali- 

ties of  temper  and  character  that  he  expects  to  find  in  them. 
Thus,  sin  is  called  in  Scripture  a  debt ;  atonement,  the  pay- 
ment of  a  debt ;  pardon,  the  forgiveness  of  a  debt.  These  are 
not  literal  terms,  but  figures  of  speech  suggesting  spiritual 
«  M'Lelland. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  129 

truths.    We  may  not  hold  these  terms  to  a  rigid  construction, 
and  maintain  that  because  Christ  died  for  man's     These  figures 

must  not   be 

sin,  therefore  all  will  be  finally  saved ;  or,  that  gg IfeJ.  ° 
because  he  has  obeyed  the  law,  therefore  sinners  are  free  to 
live  in  sin.  Men  are  represented  in  the  Bible  to  be  dead  in 
sin.  but  they  are  not  dead  in  such  a  sense  as  to  be  unable  to 
see  and  feel  the  truth ;  neither  are  they  free  from  the  duty  of 
repentance ;  nor  are  they  guiltless  if  they  disregard  the 
divine  call.  More  errors,  probably,  have  arisen  from  pushing 
figurative  expressions  to  an  extreme  than  from  any  other 
single  cause ;  and  against  this  tendency  the  sober,  earnest 
student  of  the  Bible  needs  to  be  specially  on  his  guard.7 

The  difficulty  in  understanding  a  figurative  passage  is 
sometimes  readily  resolved  by  referring  to  parallel  passages 
which  treat  of  the  same  subject  under  other  symbols  or  in 
literal  terms,  or  to  the  context.  Thus  in  the  inimitable 
Sermon  upon  the  Mount,  the  first  beatitude  is  a  benediction 

upon   the  poor,   according  to   the  Gospel   Of  St.      Figures  inter- 
preted hy  par- 
Luke,  while  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  its  meaning     aiiei  passages. 

The  first   be- 

is  clearly  interpreted  in  the  additional  phrase,     atitude. 
u  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit^  which  plainly  indicates  the 
error  of  the  Romanists  in  their  enforced  poverty  in  their  or- 
ders of  mendicant  Monks,  and  the  real  virtue  commended — 
consciousness  of  spiritual  necessities,  the  opposite  of  spirit- 
ual pride.     Dr.  Fairbairn  applies  this  principle  to  1  Cor. 
iii,  13,  which  declares  that  every  man's  work  shall  be  made 
manifest,  being  revealed  by  fire : — "  The  declaration  here 
made,"  he  says,   "is,  that    'the  day,'  namely,  of  coming  . 
r  Bible  Hand-Book :  Ang-us. 


130  THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

trial,  ;  shall  be  revealed  by  fire,  and  the  fire  shall  try  every 
man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is.'    "What  is  the  na- 

J  >r.  r  air  bairn 

13,  -revealed  ture  of  the  work  to  be  tried  ?  (as  revealed  in 
lustrated^by  the  context.)  This  is  naturally  the  first  ques- 

context. 

tion.  Is  it  of  a  moral,  or  simply  01  an  external 
and  earthly  kind  ?  The  only  work  spoken  of  in  the  con- 
text is  that  which  concerns  the  progress  of  Christ's  Church, 
and  man's  relation  to  it  —  work,  therefore,  in  a  strictly 
moral  sense ;  and  so  the  fire  that  is  to  try  it  must  be  moral 
too.  For  how  incongruous  were  it  to  couple  a  corporeal  fire 
with  a  spiritual  service,  as  the  means  of  determining  its  real 
characterl"  If  we  have  recourse  to  other  passages  which 
speak  of  future  trial,  we  find,  indeed,  that  the  Lord  will  be 
revealed  in  flaming  fire ;  but  as  to  what  shall  really  fix  the 
character  and  the  award  of  each  man's  work  in  the  Lord,  we 
are  left  in  no  room  to  doubt. that  it  shall  be  his  own  searching 
judgment:  this  it  is  that  shall  bring  all  clearly  to  light.8 

REMARK  2.  We  may  ~be  assured,  if  the  letter  of  any  Scrip- 
ture seems  to  violate  our  moral  sense,  or  to  contradict  another 
The  meaning  moral  precept,  it  cannot  ~be  intended  to  have  its 

must  not  con- 
tradict moral     ordinary  sense.     When  Christ  says,  "  If  any  man 

hate  not  his  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  he 
what  Christ  cannot  be  my  disciple,"  he  does  not  intend  to 

intended     by 

anXother?r  teach  us  that  we  must  break  the  fourth  com- 
mandment. Every  human  instinct  which  God  has  implanted 
in  the  heart  would  revolt  against  such  a  rendering.  Christ 
simply  uses  the  strongest  earthly  figure  to  express  our  super* 
eminent  obligation  to  him.  As  much  as  we  rightly  love  our 

8  Fairbairn's  Hermeneutical  Manual,  p.  163. 


THE   WOED   OF   GOD    OPENED.  131 

parents,  we  should  love  him  more.  Nothing  but  duty  to 
Christ  can  come  between  the  perfect  obedience  of  the  child 
to  the  reasonable  commands  of  a  parent. 

A  literal  rendering  of  the  command  in  Matt,  xviii,  9,  "to 
cut  off  the  right  hand  and  pluck  out  the  right 

Cutting       off 

eye,"  would  be  a  breach  of  the  spirit  of  the  sixth  the  hand' 
commandment;  while  Christ  simply  teaches  that  whatever 
stands  between  a  soul  and  its  duty,  as  revealed  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  to  be  surrendered,  even  if  the  self-denial  is  as  pain- 
ful as  the  loss  of  an  eye  or  a  hand.  "  Put  a  knife  to  thy 
throat,  if  thou  be  a  man  given  to  appetite,"  as  written  in 
Prov.  xxiii,  2,  is  not  an  exhortation  to  suicide,  but  a  warning 
against  gluttony. 

"In  Luke  x,  4  Christ  commands  his  disciples  'not  to  salute 
(during  one  of  their  missionary  journeys)  any  by 
the  way,'  a  precept  which  our  Quaker  brethren       PrecePts- 
obey  to  the  letter.    But  Christ  could  never  have  intended  to 
inculcate  rudeness ;   it  must  therefore  mean,  '  Do  not  lose 
time  by  holding  unnecessary  intercourse  with  your  friends ; 
use  all  expedition  in  journeying  to  the  scene  of  your  labors.' 
Equally  absurd  is  their  well-known  exposition  of  the  pre- 
cept, 'when  smitten  on  the  one  cheek,  turn  the  other  also,' 
as  if  our  Saviour  disapproved  of  self-defense." 9 

In  Rom.  v,  19  we  read,  "  For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience 
many  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of 

TKany    mad* 

one  shall  many  be  made  righteous."     If  we  in-     smners- 
terpret  this  verse  literally  we  are  at  once  forced  to  trample 
upon   our  moral   intuitions   as  to  right   and  wrong.      We 
8  M'Lelland. 


132  THE   WOKD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

cannot  force  our  moral  natures  to  admit  the  justice  of 
making  men  sinners,  on  account  of  the  sin  of  another,  with- 
out their  knowledge  or  consent.  "  Such  a  sense  is  contrary 
to  the  known  nature  of  man  as  a  free  agent.  That  natuie  is 
such  that  he  cannot  be  made  a  sinner  but  by  his  own  per- 
sonal and  voluntary  choice.  Besides,  the  terms  of  justifica- 
tion through  the  merits  of  Christ  are  such  that  no  man  can 
partake  of  its  benefits  save  by  a  personal  and  voluntary  faith 
in  him.  If,  therefore,  men  are  not  made  righteous  through 
Christ  except  on  condition  of  their  voluntary  faith,  neither, 
in  all  fairness,  are  they  made  sinners  through  Adam  except 
on  condition  of  their  breaking  the  divine  law  through  the 
free  choice  of  their  own  wills.  Whatever  meaning,  therefore, 
may  be  affixed  to  the  passage  it  must  be  one  that  shall  con- 
sist with  the  nature  of  man  and  with  the  nature  of  sin,  for  it 
is  a  primary  principle  that  the  Scriptures  every  where  speak 
in  harmony  with  the  nature  of  the  objects  of  which  they 
treat."  10 

The  Bible  does  not  draw  nice  theological  and  metaphysi- 
cal distinctions.     The   apostle   simply  teaches  that  as  our 
moral  nature  is  overthrown   and   disorganized 

What  the  apos- 
tle teaches,        through  our   descent  from   a  fallen   and  sinful 

man,  and  moral  beings  from  their  first  volitions  are  sinful, 
so  that  moral  nature  is  restored  and  sanctified  by  the  coming 
into  it  of  the  Lord  Jesus.     When  he  is  admitted  into  the 
heart  the  lost  balance  is  restored,  and  the  acts  are  righteous. 
Of  the  same  class  is  the  Scripture  found  in 

Christ    made 

2  Cor.  v,  21,  "For  he  hath  made  him  to  be  sin 
"Dobie. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED.  133 

'or  us,  who  knew  no  sin."  Here  would  be  a  positive  contra- 
diction to  all  the  known  nature  of  things  if  the  words  were 
taken  literally.  Our  sinless  Lord  could  not  by  any  possi- 
bility be  made  to  be  sin.  He  is  made,  however,  to  be  a  sin 
offering — an  expiatory  sacrifice  for  our  sin — so  that  we,  peni- 
tently trusting  in  him,  may  be  accounted  as  if  we  were 
righteous  before  God. 

The  passage  in  Prov.  xvi,  4,  where  it  is  said,  "  The  Lord 
hath  made  all  things  for  himself;  yea,  even  the  wicked  for  the 
day  of  evil,"  has  been  thought  by  some  to  teach  The  wicked 

made  for  the 

the  forbidding  doctrine  that  the  wicked  were  day  of  evil, 
created  that  they  might  be  condemned ;  but  this  would  be 
contrary  to  every  conviction  of  justice,  and  to  manifold  other 
Scriptures,  such  as  Psa.  cxlv,  9  ;  Ezek.  xviii,  23 ;  2  Peter  iii,  9. 
The  meaning,  therefore,  must  be  that  all  evil  shall  in  some 
way  contribute  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  promote  the  accom- 
plishment of  his  will. 

There  are  many  things  that  the  Bible  reveals  which  tran- 
scend human  thought,  but  nothing  contradictory  to  the 

moral  nature  which   God  has   given  us   if  it     Nothing  con- 
tradictory to 

comes  within  the  bounds  of  our  knowledge  and  K3!convic' 
experience.  No  man  is  required  to  do  injustice  to  his  en- 
lightened convictions  of  right  and  wrong  by  any  requisition 
which  the  sacred  record  makes  upon  his  faith  or  practice. 

REMARK  3.   When  the  literal  interpretation  is  contrary  to 
universal  experience  its  meaning  must  l)e  modified  ;     Wh 
as  when  a  passage  of  Scripture  states  absolutely     sal to  expert! 

en  ce^  must  be 

what  is  a  general  truth,  but  has  often  exceptions,     modified. 
Thus  Solomon  says  in  Prov.  xxii,  6,  "Train  up  a  child  in 


134:  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he 

Training  of  a 

will  not  depart  from  it."  This  is  not  always 
true.  .The  verse  means  this  is  the  tendency  of  such  training, 
although  the  apparent  exceptions,  after  all,  may  be  very  often 
attributed  to  some  failure  in  parental  training  even  in  the 

case  of  very  devoted  and  estimable  persons.     In 

A  soft  answer, 

Prov.  xv,  1  it  is  said,  "  A  soft  answer  turneth 
away  wrath."  This  is  its  tendency,  although  certainly  in  every 
case  this  is  not  the  result.  And  so  when  Paul  declares  that 

the  "  goodness  of  God  leadeth  to  repentance  "  he 

The  goodness 

states  a  general  truth.  This  is  its  inclination ; 
but  how  many  resist  it  to  their  own  destruction !  So,  also, 
when  we  are  commanded  by  our  Lord  to  "  take  no  thought 
Taking  no  for  the  morrow,"  and  by  the  apostle  to  "pray 

thought,   and 

ou?ce?singh~  without  ceasing,"  the  natural  modifications  of 
the  literal  signification  of  the  words  are  so  evident  that  no 
one  can  fail  to  perceive  them.  In  John  i,  11,  12  it  is  said, 
His  own  re-  "  He  came  unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received 

ceived      him 

not.  him  not."    It  might  seem  from  this  that  not  one 

of  his  own  nation  received  him.  The  next  sentence,  however, 
suggests  the  scriptural  modification,  "  But  as  many  as  re- 
ceived him,"  comparatively  few  received  him. 

REMARK  4.  We  shall  consider  in  another  chapter  the 
interpretation  of  the  poetic  books,  and  of  prophecy.  Noth- 
ing can  be  more  evident  than  that  the  latter  cannot  be 
understood  literally.  Hundreds  have  attempted  it.  Sys- 
interpretiDj?  terns  of  hernieneutics  have  been  prepared  pur 

prophecy  must 

not  be  literal,  porting  to  give  the  exact  significance  of  pro- 
phetic symbols.  In  our  own  country  incalculable  evil  has 


THE    WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  135 

been  brought  upon  the  cause  of  Christ;  especially  upon 
local  Churches  and  individuals  led  away  by  the  sincere  but 
mistaken  opinions  of  teachers  who  have  ventured  upon  a 
literal  rendering  of  prophecy. 

These  are  the  natural  exceptions,  arising  out  of  the  idioms 
and  customs  of  speaking  of  the  times,  to  the  principle  of  the 
rule,  but  in  no  measure  affecting  its  value  as  a  broad  canon 
for  our  guidance  in  the  interpretation  of  the  sacred  writings. 

RULE  H. 

In  settling  the  meaning  of  words  we  must  have 
respect  chiefly  to  the  current  sense  or  established 
usage  at  the  time  they  were  uttered,  rather  than 
to  their  etymology. 

The  importance  of  this  rule  is  obvious  even  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  a  book  written  in  our  own  language  two  or 
three  hundred  years  since.  Thus  the  word  villain,  which  at 
the  present  time  signifies  an  extremely  depraved  person, 
formerly  meant  the  poor  serf  attached  to  the  changes  in 

our  own  Ian- 

villa  or  farm  of  a  proprietor.  As  they  were  suage. 
ignorant,  and  generally  dishonest  and  dissolute,  when  the 
original  relation  ceased,  the  term  was  applied  to  such  a 
character  as  they  were  accustomed  to  exhibit.  In  our  En- 
glish version  of  the  Scriptures  we  find  the  word  let,  which 
now  signifies  to  permit,  used  as  it  formerly  was  in  the  sense 
of  hindering.11 

The  term  prevent,  now  usually  signifies  to  restrain,  but  in 
»  Bomans  1 13. 


136  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

the  Scripture  it  often  has  its  appropriate  meaning,  as  derived 
from  the  Latin,  to  come  before,  or  to  anticipate.  Thus  the 
psalmist  says  :  "  But  unto  thee  have  I  cried,  O  Lord ;  and  in 
the  morning  shall  my  prayer  prevent  (or  come  before)  thee." ia 
An  Englishman  speaks  of  a  man  as  clever,  meaning  that  he 
is  capable,  dexterous;  while  we  generally  use  the  term  as 
expressing  amiableness  and  good  nature. 

In  Gal.  vi,  2  we  are  directed  to  "  bear  one  another's  bur- 
dens, and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ ;"  while  immediately 
AS  to  bearing  after,  in  the  fifth  verse,  we  are  told  that  "  every 

our  own  and 

dins1!3'  bur"  one  shall  bear  his  own  burden."  The  context 
throws  some  light  upon  the  different  uses  of  the  same  term, 
indicating  that  one  is  the  burden  of  one's  trials  and  infirmi- 
ties, which  may  readily  be  shared  in  by  others,  while  the 
other  is  the  burden  of  his  personal  responsibility,  or  the 
burden  of  his  personal  state  and  destiny,  which  he  must  bear 
himself  alone.  In  the  original  terms  used  to  express  these 
two  burdens  the  difference  is  at  once  seen.  The  burdens 
which  we  are  to  bear  for  one  another  are  expressed  by  a 
Greek  word  signifying  the  weighty  the  things  which  press 
like  loads  upon  those  who  come  in  contact  with  them ;  but 
the  burden  which  each  one  is  to  bear  for  himself  is  expressed 
by  two  words  which  signify  his  own  1>aggage,  the  solemn 
personal  accountability  which  God  has  laid  upon  him.  Dr. 
Fairbairn  gives  an  interesting  illustration  of  this  rule  in  the 
interpretation  of  2  Cor.  xii,  9.  The  apostle  here  says  that  he 
The  import  of  would  most  willingly  rather  glory  in  infirmities, 

"the power  of  to  J  J 

S>olsVn^''Ug     "  that  the  power  of  Christ  may  rest  upon  me," 
»*  Psalm  Ixxxviii,  18. 


THE   WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED.  137 

which,  sentence  but  imperfectly  presents  the  force  and  signifi- 
cation of  the  original.  The  verb  employed,  translated  may 
rest,  belongs  to  the  later  Greek,  and  is  found  in  Polybius  in 
the  sense  of  dwelling  in  a  tent,  or  inhabiting.  The  word, 
however,  can  only  be  explained  by  referring  to  what  is  said 
in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  (which  was  familiar  to  the 
apostle)  of  the  relation  of  the  Lord's  tabernacle  or  tent  to  his 
people ;  for  example,  as  where  it  is  written  in  Isa.  iv,  6, 
"  And  there  shall  be  a  tabernacle  for  a  shadow  in  the  day- 
time from  the  heat,"  signifying  the  Lord's  gracious  presence 
and  protection  spread  over  them  as  a  shelter.  So,  also,  in 
Rev.  vii,  15  the  Lord  is  represented  as  "tabernacling  upon" 
the  redeemed  in  glory.  In  like  manner  the  apostle  here 
states  it  as  the  reason  why  he  would  rejoice  in  infirmities, 
that  thereby  Christ's  power  might  tabernacle  upon  him — 
might  serve  him,  so  to  speak,  as  the  abiding  refuge  and 
divine  resort  in  which  he  could  hide  himself. 

Archbishop  Leighton  calls  attention  to  the  expressive 
word  used  to  denote  God's  opposition  to  the  proud.  God 
resisteth  the  proud :  sets  himself  in  battle  array 

God  resisting 

(for  this  is  the  force  of  the  word)  against  pride,     theProud- 
as  if  it  were  his  grand  enemy.13 

The  Jews  frequently  expressed  a  qualifying  thought  by  the 
use,  not  of  an  adjective,  but  of  a  second  noun,  a  practice  which 
is  also  seen  in  the  Hebrew  Greek  of  the  New  Testament. 
In  2  Cor.  i,  5  Paul  says,  the  "sufferings  of  Christ  abound 
in  us."  This  is  a  very  common  idiom  of  the  Scriptures.  It 
means,  not  the  sufferings  experienced  by  Christ  himself,  b-jt 
18  Fairbairn's  Hermeneutical  Manual. 


138  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

those  which  we  suffer  for  him.     Thus,  when  the  apostle  calls 
himself  a  prisoner  of  Christ,  he  means  that  he  was 

Hebraisms. 

imprisoned  for  his  belief  in  Christ.  In  various 
chapters  of  Romans  Paul  speaks  of  the  "  righteousness  of 
God,"  by  which  he  plainly  signifies,  not  the  excellency  of  the 
divine  nature,  but  the  righteousness  by  which  the  sinner  is 
justified,  and  which  he  calls  God's  righteousness,  because  he 
graciously  provided  the  means  of  its  attainment,  and  accepts  it. 
All  this  is  in  accordance  with  the  Hebrew  idiom,  which  em- 
ploys the  genitive  (or  possessive  case)  in  the  place  of  an  adjec- 
tive, as  where  the  apostle  speaks  of  the  "patience  of  hope"  for 
patient  hope,  the  "glory  of  his  power  "  for  his  glorious  power. 
Things  are  sometimes  said  to  be  done  which  are  only 
Things  said  to  attempted,  or  where  there  is  an  endeavor  or 

be  done  which 

tempted1.7  ^'  desire  to  do  them.  Reuben  is  said  to  "have 
delivered  Joseph  out  of  the  hands  of  his  brethren."  He 
sought  to  do  so,  although  he  failed  in  his  purpose.  "  Whoso 
findeth  his  life,"  says  our  Saviour,  "  shall  lose  it,"  that  is, 
seeks  to  find  or  save  it — is  unduly  anxious — at  the  expense  of 
duty.  Sometimes  an  act  is  said  to  be  done  by  a  person 
when  he  is  simply  the  occasion  of  it.  Thus  Jeremiah  declares 
One  who  oc-  (xxxviii,  23)  that  God  says  to  the  unhappy  king 
said  to  do  it.  Zedekiah,  that  he  shall  be  taken  by  the  hand  of 
the  king  of  Babylon,  and  shall  "  cause  Jerusalem  to  be  burnt 
with  fire."  The  conduct  of  Zedekiah  led  to  this  mournful 
result  at  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Babylon.  He  did  not  order 
Jerusalem  to  be  burned,  but  it  was  burned  on  his  account. 
This  explains  the  apparent  discrepancy  between  Matthew's 
and  Luke's  account  of  the  purchase  of  the  "  field  of  blood." 


THE   WOKD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  139 

The  former  states  that  it  was  bought  by  the  priests  and 
elders  with  the  money  that  Juclas  returned  to  them ;  the 
latter,  in  Acts  i,  18,  says:  "This  man  [Judas]  purchased  a 
field  with  the  reward  of  iniquity."  In  this  case  he  was  the 
occasion  of  the  purchase,  and  according  to  the  current  habit 
of  speech,  was  said  to  have  made  it  himself. 

That  which  is  difficult  or  inconvenient  or  unjust  was  often 
said  to  be  impossible,  as  when  in  Ruth  iv.  6,  the 

Things  said  to 

kinsman  of  Elimelech  says,  "  I  cannot  redeem  his 
inheritance."  He  had  property  enough  to  do  it,  but  it  was 
inconvenient  for  him  to  assume  the  necessary  obligations. 
When  the  householder  in  our  Lord's  parable  was  called  at 
midnight  to  give  admission  to  a  friend,  he  replies :  "  The 
door  is  shut,  the  children  are  with  me  in  bed,  and  I  cannot 
rise  and  give."  He  means,  it  would  be  a  great  discomfort  for 
him  to  do  so.  So,  when  in  Mark  vi,  5  it  is  said  of  our  Lord 
that  "he  could  there  do  no  mighty  work  because  of  their 
unbelief,"  it  is  meant  that  he  could  not  consistently  or  justly, 
or  from  the  fact  that  their  unbelief  kept  them  from  coming 
to  him  so  that  he  might  save  them. 

This  suggestion  will  aid  in  the  understanding  of  that  large 
class  of  Scriptures  which  refer  to  God  as  causing     Explains  pas- 

*      sases     which 

us  to  "  err  from  "  his  "ways,"  "hardening"  our  SSStooSt11 
'*  hearts,"  "  shutting  the  eyes "  of  sinners,  and  making  their 
"  ears  heavy,"  lest  they  "  should  see  with  their  eyes  and  hear 
with  their  ears."  What  God  has  in  wisdom  and  in  love  per- 
mitted, or  what  has  occurred  in  the  operation  of  laws  which 
be  has  established,  he  is  said,  in  this  familiar  idiom,  to  have 
done.  He  "hardened  Pharaoh's  heart,"  by  permitting  him  to 


140  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

harden  himself  through  neglect  of  those  very  means  which 
serve,  when  properly  improved,  to  soften  and  subdue  the 
affections. 

Sometimes  the  names  of  parents  or  ancestors  are  used  in 
the  Scriptures  for  their  posterity.  Thus  in  Gen.  ix,  25,  it  is 
The  parents'  written,  "  Cursed  be  Canaan ;"  but  the  curse  fell 

names     used 

I0nts.de£  not  upon  himself;  it  rested  upon  his  sinful  pos- 

terity. This  curse,  it  should  be  recollected,  did  not  rest 
upon  his  righteous  descendants,  for  both  Melchisedek  and 
Abimelech  were  Canaanites,  as  was  the  woman  who  came  to 
Christ,  and  whose  daughter  was  healed.14  In  the  same  way 
Jacob  and  Israel  are  often  put  for  the  Israelites,  as  in 
Psa.  xiv,  7.  The  word  "  son  "  is  often  used  in  reference  to  a 
remote  ancestor,  as  the  priests  were  called  the  sons  of  Levi. 
Brother  is  used  in  the  same  way,  as  referring  to 

Brother  means 

any  collateral  relation.  Abraham  applies  the 
term  to  Lot,  who  was  his  nephew.  Jair  is  called  the  son  of 
Manasseh,  because  his  grandfather  had  married  the  daughter 
of  one  of  the  heads  of  Manasseh.  Mary,  the  mother  of  our 
Lord,  is  also  thought  to  have  descended  from  David  in  this 
way,  so  that  our  Lord  was  David's  son,  not  only  through  his 
reputed  father,  but  by  direct  descent  through  his  mother. 
Modern  biblical  scholars  suppose  Joseph  and  Mary  to  have 
been  distant  relatives.  In  2  Kings  viii,  26  Athaliah  is  called 
the  daughter  of  Omri,  while  in  the  eighteenth  verse  of  the 
same  chapter  she  is  called  the  daughter  of  Ahab.  She  was 
\hab's  daughter  and  Ornri's  granddaughter. 
These  illustrations  simply  indicate  the  importance  of  this 
14  Genesis  xiv,  IS;  xx,  6;  Matthew  xv,  22-23. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  141 

rule,  and  will  suggest  to  the  young  interpreter  the  value  of  a 
good  critical  commentary  to  give  him  the  exact 

Value  of  crit- 

meaning  of  Scripture  terms  according  to  the     lcalnotes- 
usus  loquendi,  the  current  sense,  of  the  times  in  which  they 
were  uttered. 

RULE  III. 

To  the  utmost  extent  that  it  can  be  secured  by 
reference  to  parallel  passages,  and  especially  to  the 
context  and  other  portions  of  Scripture  written  by 
the  same  sacred  penman,  the  Bible  should  be  made 
its  own  expositor. 

By  parallel  passages  are  meant  those  teaching  the  same 
doctrine,  or  relating  the  same  facts  ;  passages  of 

Parallel   pas- 

the  Old  Testament  alluded  to  in  the  New,  as     sages* 
illustrations,   or   as    prophecies   fulfilled ;    portions    of   the 
Scriptures  where  the  same  terms  are  used  under  other  cir- 
cumstances, showing  the  various  significations  given  by  the 
sacred  writers  to  the  terms  they  use.     Our  reference 

Reference 

Bibles,  one  of  which  should  always  be  in  the  hands  Blbie> 
of  a  teacher,  have  accumulated  a  valuable  collection  of  col- 
lated texts.  But  much  will  remain  for  the  Bible  scholar 
himself  to  do  in  this  direction.  Many  of  the  passages  in  a 
reference  Bible  have  but  the  most  remote,  if  any,  relation  to  the 
Scripture  they  are  said  to  be  the  parallel  of,  and  many  more 
a  diligent  student  will  collate  by  the  aid  of  the  concordance 
for  his  own  benefit.  It  is  wonderful  how,  in  skillful  hands, 
the  Bible  can  be  made  to  pour  inspired  light  upon  its  own 
difficult  passages. 


142  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

"I  will  not  scruple  to  assert,"  says  the  learned  Bishop 
Bishop  Hors-  Horslev,  "  that  the  most  illiterate  Christian,  if 

ley  upon  cora- 

Scdptm-es.  °f  ^  can  but  read  his  English  Bible,  and  will  take 
the  pains  to  read  it  in  this  manner  (studying  the  parallel 
passages)  without  any  other  commentary  than  what  the 
different  parts  mutually  furnish  for  each  other,  will  not  only 
attain  all  that  practical  knowledge  which  is  necessary  to 
salvation,  but  will  become  learned  in  every  thing  relating  to 
his  religion  in  such  a  degree  that  he  will  not  be  liable  to  be 
misled,  either  by  the  refuted  arguments  or  the  false  assertions 
of  those  who  endeavor  to  engraft  their  own  opinions  upon 
the  oracles  of  God.  He  may  safely  be  ignorant  of  all  philos- 
ophy and  all  history  which  he  does  not  find  in  the  sacred 
books." 

It  is  by  comparing  Scripture  with  Scripture  that  we 
in  this  way  become  sure  °^  tne  true  Cleaning  of  particular 
meaning  l  of  passages,  and  especially  are  able  to  ascertain  the 

Scripture  doc- 

trine-  doctrines  of  the  Bible  on  questions  of  faith  and 

practice.  "A  Scripture  truth  is  really  the  consistent  expla- 
nation of  all  that  Scripture  teaches  in  reference  to  the  question 
to  be  examined,  and  a  Scripture  duty  is  the  consistent  ex- 
planation of  all  the  precepts  of  Scripture  on  the  duty  exam- 
ined. It  is  in  studying  the  Scriptures  as  in  studying  the 
works  of  God.  We  first  examine  each  fact  or  phenomenon, 
and  ascertain  its  meaning,  and  then  classify  it  with  other 
similar  facts,  and  attempt  to  explain  the  whole."  15  From 
not  studying  their  sacred  books  in  this  way  the 

Error  of  the 

Jews-  Jews    made    their   great    mistake   in   rejecting 

15  Angus. 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  143 

Christ.  "  We  have  heard  out  of  the  law,"  they  say,  "  that 
Christ  abideth  forever :"  (this  truth  had  been  revealed  in 
Isa.  ix,  7,  and  in  Daniel  vii,  14 :)  "  and  how  sayest  thou,"  they 
inquire,  that  "the  Son  of  man  must  be  lifted  up?"  The 
Messiah's  everlasting  kingdom  had  indeed  been  foretold, 
but  it  had  also  been  prophesied  that  he  should  be  "  brought 
as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,"  and  that  he  should  be  "  cut  off, 
though  not  for  himself." 16 

Great  wisdom  must  be  used  in  interpreting  the  spiritual 
references  in  the  New  Testament  to  the  ritual  services  of  the 
Old.  In  such  passages  as  distinctly  exhibit  the  differences 

between  the  New  and  the  Old,  it  is  the  differ- 
ence must  be 

ences  which  are  to  be  chiefly  insisted  upon ;  while  uaHzln^the 
in  those  passages  which  present  Christian  priv-  S^Old Test- 
ileges  and  duties  under  the  symbols  of  the  Old 
Testament,  the  agreement  should  be  specially  dwelt  upon. 
Thus  when  the  apostle,  in  the  twelfth  of  Romans,  enjoins 
a  living  sacrifice,  there  is  a  significant  harmony  shown  be- 
tween the  two  dispensations.  He  exhorts  those  who  are 
partakers  of  the  rich  grace  of  the  Gospel  to  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  the  children  of  God  under  the  former  Covenant ; 
they  should  bring  their  bodies — all  their  powers  and  attain- 
ments—  place  them  on  his  altar — a  real  sacrifice,  made 
holy  by  the  receiving  Spirit;  acceptable,  because  the  or- 
dained gift,  and,  therefore,  well-pleasing  unto  the  Lord. 
This  would  be  a  reasonable  service  as  opposed  to  a  cor- 
poreal or  outward  form  of  offering,  while  the  similarity  of 
the  service  would  happily  illustrate  the  Christian  duty. 

"Isa.  liii,  7,8;  Dan.  ix,  26, 


THE   WOKD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 


"  In  reading  Acts  ii,  21,"  says  Angus,  "we  find  it  said  that 
How  to  prac-  l  Whosoever  shall  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord 

tically        use 

sages!61  pas"  shall  be  saved  ;'  and  the  question  may  be  asked, 
What  is  meant  by  calling  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  ? 
Matthew  tells  us  that  '  not  every  one  that  saith,  Lord,  Lord, 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,'  so  that  the  passage 
is  not  to  be  understood  in  its  literal  and  restricted  sense. 
On  referring  to  Rom.  x,  11-14,  and  1  Cor.  i,  2,  we  find  that 
this  language,  which  is  quoted  from  the  prophet  Joel, 
implied  an  admission  of  the  Messiahship,  of  Christ,  and 
reliance  on  the  doctrines  which  he  revealed."  The  im- 
port of  the  declaration  contained  in  1  Sam.  xiii,  14,  and 
Acts  xiii,  22,  that  David  was  "  a  man  after  God's  own 
heart,"  is  explained  by  1  Sam.  ii,  35,  where  it  is  said,  "  I 
will  raise  me  up  a  faithful  priest,  that  shall  do  according 
to  that  which  is  in  mine  heart"  which  shows  the  meaning 
to  be  that  David,  in  his  official  conduct,  would  carry  out 
the  divine  will. 

In  Joel  xi,  28,  among  the  attendant  blessings  upon  Mes- 
siah's reign,  it  is  promised,  "  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon 
all  flesh."  Should  one  desire  to  know  how  broad  is  the 
application  of  this  promise  he  may  turn  to  Gen.  vi,  12,  and 
read  that  "  all  flesh  had  corrupted  his  way,"  which  clearly 
shows  that  the  term  flesh  thus  used  refers  to  all  mankind  ; 
but  flesh  sometimes  means  tender  and  teachable,  as  in  Ezck. 
xi,  19,  "  I  will  give  you  a  heart  of  flesh,"  is  opposed  to  a  heart 
of  stone.  Its  more  common  meaning  in  the  New  Testament 
is  corrupt  and  sinful  human  nature,  as  in  Rom.  viii,  5,  "  for 
they  that  are  after  the  flesh  do  mind  the  things  of  the  flesh." 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED.  145 

It  sometimes  signifies,  as  in  Gal.  vi,  12,  iii,  3,  outward  cere- 
monies as  compared  with  inward  holiness. 

In  1  Cor.  vii,  1  Paul  says,  "  It  is  not  good  for  a  man  to 
marry ;"  but  in  the  twenty-sixth  verse  he  explains  his  seeming 

contradiction  of  the  divine  assertion  that  "it  is  not  good 

• 
that  the  man  should  be  alone,"  by  saying,  "  It  is  good  for 

the  present  distress  "  that  man  should  not  marry.  Marriage 
is  an  excellent  thing,  but  may  be  inexpedient  in  times  of 
severe  persecution. 

Sometimes  the  sacred  writers  use  terms  with  a  very  differ- 
ent signification.     This  must  not  be  overlooked     Terms  some- 
times   differ- 
in  their  comparison.     Thus  in  the  epistles   of    entiyused. 

Paul  the  term  "  works,"  when  it  stands  by  itself,  is  used  to 
signify  the  opposite  of  faith,  the  performance  of  legal  duties, 
as  the  ground  of  salvation.  In  James  the  expression  always 
means  the  obedience  and  holiness  which  flow  from  faith.  In 
the  one  case  works  are  inconsistent  with  [as  the  ground  of] 
salvation,  in  the  other  they  are  essential  to  it.17 
The  different  writers  of  the  Gospels  supplement  each 

other,  and  the  parallel  statements  of  the  same     Gospel    wri- 
ters   supple- 
events,  when  correctly  collated,  add  great  inter-     5t|er.    each 

est  to  the  recitals,  and  aid  in  their  mutual  interpretation.18 

17  Angus. 

1  ti  To  show  the  additional  light  and  interest  which  the  introduction  of  the 
parallel  passages  in  the  Gospel  throw  upon  the  events  which  they  relate, 
Dean  Alford  refers  to  the  accounts  of  the  transfiguration.  "We  learn  from  Luke 
the  very  significant  truth  u  that  it  was  as  Jesus  prayed  that  the  fashion  of  his 
countenance  was  altered."  So  we  read  that  he  was  praying  at  his  baptism 
(Luke  iii,  21)  when  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  on  him.  So,  too,  it  is  noticed  'n 
this  Gospel  that  he  continued  all  night  in  prayer.  In  a  peculiar  manner  St. 
Luke  brings  out  this  remarkable  habit  of  our  Lord  in  his  Gospel.  But  also  in 
10 


146  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

"  In  Matt,  vii,  13,"  says  Dr.  Doedes,  "  it  is  evident  to  every 
The      strait     one  who  pays  close  attention  to  the  expression, 

gate    at    the 

wnay.  °f  the  '  Enter  ye  in,'  that  we  must  not  think  of  the  way 
as  being  behind  the  gate,  as  if  it  were  written,  Go  ye  out  at 
the  strait  gate,  etc.  No ;  we  must  think  of  this  gate  or 
entrance  as  being  at  the  end  of  that  way.  The  wTay*is  not 
mentioned  first,  because  the  gate,  as  entrance,  [to  heaven,]  is 
the  main  subject.  To  those  now  who  do  not  understand  it 
thus,  and,  therefore,  place  the  gate  at  the  commencement  of 
the  way,  Luke,  in  chapter  xiii,  24,  25,  renders  good  service, 
where  the  gate  is  the  same  as  the  entrance,  and  this  can  only 
be  thought  of  as  at  the  end  of  the  way." 19 

The  context  is  to  be  carefully  examined  to  discover  the 
Context,  to  be     meaning  of  the  inspired  penman  in  particular 

carefully   ex- 
amined, passages.     Thus,  in  Rom.  vi,  23,  the  meaning  of 

the  word  "  death  "  (the  wages  of  sin)  is  clearly  shown  from 
its  opposite,  "the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord."  In  James  ii,  14  the  faith  that  cannot  save 
is  explained  to  be  the  faith  that  exhausts  itself  in  words,  and 
not  in  deeds.  It  is  a  faith  without  obedience,  such  a  faith  as 

his  narrative  of  the  transfiguration,  "  we  learn  what  it  was  on  which  the  three 
glorified  ones  conversed  on  the  holy  mount :  his  decease  which  he  should  accom- 
plish at  Jerusalem.  Thus  does  the  incident  of  the  transfiguration  acquire  a 
holy  significance  in  our  Lord^s  history,  which  we  should  not  otherwise  be  able 
to  attach  to  it  He  is  now  passing  into  the  shadow  of  his  Passion,  and  the 
blessed  glorified  ones  are  permitted  to  come  and  solace  his  human  soul  with 
mention  of  the  sufferings  he  was  to  undergo,  and  the  glory  which  should  follow. 
The  transfiguration  is  the  gilded  edge  of  that  dark  cloud  into  which  the  SOD 
of  God  was  entering  for  our  sakes."— How  to  Study  the  New  Testament^ 
page  92. 
ls>  Hermeneutics  of  the  New  Testament,  page  102. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  147 

devils  feel,  (verse  19;)  but  it  is  not  such  as  Abraham  ex- 
perienced, (verse  23.) 

In  1  John  in,  9  it  is  said,  "  Whosoever  is  born  of  God  doth 
not  'commit  sin."  But  on  comparing  this  expression  with 
other  parts  of  the  epistle  we  find  that  to  commit  sin  here 
means  "  to  walk  in  darkness,"  i,  6 ;  "  not  to  keep  the  com- 
mandments," ii,  4 ;  "to  hate  his  brother,"  ii,  9 ;  "  to  love 
the  world,"  ii,  15,  expressions  that  bespeak  settled  habits, 
habits  alien  to  the  spirit  of  a  Christian.20 

The  affecting  and  beautiful  words  of  the  Psalmist  in  the 
forty-second  psalm  might  upon  the  first  reading  seem  to 
portray  the  longing  desire  of  the  writer  to  enjoy  the  presence 
of  his  God  in  the  eternal  world : 

"As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water-brooks 
So  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  0  God  I 

20  Angus.  Dean  Alford  expresses  the  severest  reprehension  of  the  indolent 
custom  of  stringing  together  in  proof  of  Scripture  doctrine  passages  of  the  Holy 
Eecord,  and  thus  giving  to  them  a  signification  that  could  not  be  sustained  by 
an  examination  of  their  contexts.  "  The  utmost  that  seems  to  be  expected."  he 
remarks,  "  even  from  the  clergy  themselves,  is  to  be  able  to  affirm  that  the 
Scripture  says  so  and  so.  But  what  Scripture  says  it  ?  with  what  intept  ?  how 
far,  in  the  words  quoted,  is  the  context  duly  had  in  regard  ?  do  they  or  do  they 
not  rightly  represent  the  sense  of  the  original  ?  these  things  not  one  clergy- 
man in  ten  seems  to  take  into  account,  still  less  those  laymen  who  would  be 
ashamed  to  quote  in  the  same  slovenly  manner  any  of  the  well-known  classical 
authors.  And  as  to  ordinary  English  readers  of  the  Gospels,  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  the  way  in  which  they  use  them  seems  to  proceed  on  the  assump- 
tion that  there  is  but  one  Gospel,  not  four;  that  that  one  has  been  delivered 
down  to  us  entire  and  indisputable  in  every  point,  and  in  one  form,  and  that 
form  the  English  version  as  published  by  King  James's  translators." — How  to 
Study  Vie  New  Testament.  The  satisfactory  reliance  upon  the  English  -version 
is  far  from  being  so  serious  an  evil  as  the  quoting  of  passages  out  of  their 
connections,  and  thus  forcing  them  to  sustain  a  doctrine  never  intended  ly  the 
inspired  Author. 


148  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

My  soul  thirsteth  for  God,  the  living  God: 
"When  shall  I  come  and  appear  before  God  ? 
My  tears  are  my  meat  day  and  night, 
"While  it  is  said  continually,  Where  is  thy  God  ?  " 

But  the  fourth  verse  of  the  psalm  shows  that  the  devout 
David  sighing  king,  deprived  of  the  privileges  of  the  sanctuary 

for  God's 

house.  by  the  rebellion  of  his  son  Absalom,  which  had 

driven  him  from  Jerusalem,  wrote  these  words  to  express  Ms 
inward  panting  for  the  beloved  services  of  God's  earthly 
courts : 

"  When  I  remember  these  things,  I  pour  out  my  soul  in  me ; 
For  I  had  gone  with  the  multitude, 
I  went  with  them  to  the  house  of  God, 
With  the  voice  of  joy  and  praise, 
With  a  multitude  that  kept  holy  day." 

The  one  hundred  and  tenth  psalm  describes  the  victorious 
progress  of  an  illustrious  prince  greatly  honored  by  God, 
and  exalted  to  his  right  hand.  The  first  three  verses  leave 
one  in  doubt  whether  the  poet  speaks  of  David  or  another 
and  far  greater  personage,  as  the  sitting  at  God's  right  hand 
may  be  figurative : 

"Jehovah  said  unto  my  Lord, 

Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand, 

Messianic  Until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool. 

I-sakus.  Thy  powerful  scepter  Jehovah  sends  out  of  Zion : 

Kule  in  the  midst  of  thy  foes." 

But  the  fourth  verse  settles  the  question : 

"Jehovah  hath  sworn  and  will  not  repent : 
Thou  art  an  everlasting  priest 
Of  the  order  of  Melchisedek." 

David  was  no  priest,  nor  could  any  Hebrew  monarch 
assume  the  office  without  heaven-daring  profanity.  The 


THE  WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  149 

*tra*ige  and  (to  the  Jew)  astounding  phenomenon  of  a 
"priest  upon  a  throne"  directs  us  at  once  to  David's  Son 
and  Lord.  The  application  of  this  simple  test  will  enable 
the  plainest  Christian  to  detect  the  psalms  called  Messianic 
at  a  glance.  They  all  embody  in  their  representations  such 
remarkable  incidents  and  traits  of  personal  character  as 
make  it  impossible  to  apply  them,  without  the  grossest 
impropriety,  to  any  but  the  "  Anointed  of  the  Father."  21 

In  gathering  proof  texts  to  sustain  any  supposed  doctrine  of 
Scripture  great  care  should  be  taken  to  examine  Care  in  path- 

ering  parallel 

the  context  of  each  quotation  to  see  if  the  signifi-     JJJSXSJaJfbe 

t  •   i  •        .-,  ..,.„,,  correctly   de- 

cation  which  we  give  the  passage  is  justified  by  termined. 
the  sense,  thus  determined,  in  which  it  was  used  by  the  in- 
spired penmen.  Any  writer  may  readily  be  made  to  contra- 
dict himself,  or  to  make  the  most  extravagant  assertions,  by 
taking  sentences  out  of  their  connection  and  giving  to  them  a 
meaning  that  they  may  possibly  bear,  but  ut-  NO  doctrine 

sh9uld         be 

terly  opposed  to   the  intention  of  the   author,     ^^g  on 
Certainly  no  doctrine  affecting  faith  and  practice     Scripture. 
should  be  built  up  on  separate  clauses  of  Scripture. 

A  clergyman  of  the  modern  school  of  theology  called 
"  liberal,"  in  preaching  upon  our  Lord's  parable  of  the 
prodigal  son,  inquired,  after  he  had  passed  through  and 
illustrated  its  touching  recitals,  "  Where  does  the  prodigal  son 

and  the 

atonement  come  in  here  ?    We  see  nothing  of  it,"     atonement. 
he  continued,  "  as  Jesus  brings  a  penitent  son  to  the  Father's 
arms.     He  should  know  what  is  required,   and  he   shows 
that  all  that  is  necessary  is  only  that  which  a  living  earthly 
21  M'Lelland. 


150  THE   WORD    OF    GOD   OPENED. 

father  seeks,  the  penitent  return  of  the  child  to  the  father's 
house." 

But  this  same  Jesus,  our  Saviour,  in  his  interview  with 
Nicodenius,  opens  his  discourse  with  the  assertion,  "  Except 
a  man  be  born  again — born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit — he 
cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  He  then  explains  to  the 
wondering  rabbi  that  this  divine  process  is  to  be  secured  by 
looking  upon  the  Son  of  man,  wTho  was  to  be  "  lifted  up"  as 
"  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness."  Here  is 
where  the  atonement  conies  in  1  but  where  does  the  prodigal 
son  come  in  in  this  discourse  ? 

These  Scriptures  present  different  aspects  of  the  one  grand 
and  divine  plan  of  redemption,  each  one  teaching  a  vital 
truth,  and  both  indispensable  to  lead  a  sinner  to  a  reconciled 
God.  The  parable  presents  the  paternal  love  of  God,  and  the 
welcome  with  which  the  penitent  sinner  is  met  as  he  returns, 
confessing  his  sins,  to  a  life  of  obedience  and  trust.  The 
words  of  Jesus  to  the  moral  Jew  exhibit  the  divine  plan  by 
which  God  can  be  just,  through  the  interposition  of  a 
Redeemer,  and  still  justify  the  sinner  that  believes  in  Jesus, 
and  the  indispensable  office  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  renewing 
the  depraved  heart. 

We  need  to  collect  together  from  the  Scriptures  all  that 
is  said  upon  a  given  doctrine  before  we  declare  its  full 
intent  and  relation  to  the  other  elements  of  a  divine  life. 
In  1  Cor.  xv,  22  we  read,  as  already  quoted,  "For  as  in 
Adam  all  die,  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive."  On  these 
words  we  sometimes  find  built  up  a  theory  of  the  moral  and 
legal  identity  of  our  race  with  our  first  parents ;  the  text 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  151 

affirms,  such  interpreters  say,  that  all  men  die  in  Adam,  there- 
fore all  once  lived  and  acted  in  him.  Here  is  a  moral  and 
legal  unity,  they  assert;  his  sin  was  our  sin,  his  guilt  our 
guilt,  his  death  our  death.  On  the  other  hand,  another  class 
declares  that  the  text  teaches  that  salvation  by  Christ  is  as 
universal  as  death  by  Adam.  Do  not  all  men  die  ?  they  ask. 
Does  not  the  text  say  death  came  by  Adam  ?  What  then, 
they  inquire,  as  if  the  theory  were  proved  beyond  AU  dying  in 
a  cavil,  does  the  apostle  mean,  but  that  all  are  cSSst.  ' 
saved  in  Christ  ?  Sure  enough,  what  does  he  mean  ?  Read 
the  context,  and  the  answer  cannot  be  mistaken.  Paul  is 
presenting  the  glorious  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
body.  In  his  argument  he  says,  "  For  since  by  man  came 
death,  by  man  also  came  the  resurrection  of  the  dead"  As 
by  Adam  came  upon  all  men  the  sentence  of  death,  so  by  the 
man  Christ  Jesus  came  upon  all  men  the  gift  of  resurrection 
from  the  dead.  The  apostle  is  writiug  simply  upon  the 
subject  of  the  resurrection,  and  makes  no  reference  either  to 
the  universal  salvation  of  sinners  or  to  the  federal  relation  of 
all  men  to  Adam.  He  states  simply  the  obvious  fact,  that 
all  men  have  died  since  Adam's  sin,  and  as  a  consequence  of 
it ;  but  that  the  loss  of  life  has  been  more  than  amply  com- 
pensated by  Christ's  giving  it  back  again  in  the  form  of  a 
resurrection  to  the  world.  As  man  is  not  necessarily  lost, 
even  though  he  may  die  on  account  of  Adam's  sin,  so  he  is 
not  necessarily  saved,  although  he  may  live  forever,  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  interposition  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  strongest  meaning  that 
can  be  placed  upon  Scripture  terms  is  not  always  the  writer's 


152  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

acceptation  of  them ;  but  the  context  and  parallel  passages 
The  strongest  must  determine  this.  Such  words  as  perfect,  per^ 

meaning   not 

frue'one.  the  fection,  holiness,  sanctification,  without  sin,  must 
be  carefully  considered  in  the  light  of  their  connections  and  of 
parallel  Scriptures.  It  must  be  seen  at  once  that  all  these 
terms,  as  predicated  of  finite  and  imperfect  beings,  cannot  have 
an  absolute  signification.  Because  the  words,  as  literally  ren- 
dered, seem  to  afford  strength  to  any  position  we  have  taken, 
we  have  no  right  to  impose  a  sense  upon  them  that  never 
entered  into  the  mind  of  the  sacred  writer.  The  context  and 
parallel  passages  must  be  sought  to  enable  us  to  w^eigh  their 
meaning.  The  beautiful  sentence  in  Jer.  xxxi,  3,  "I  have 
Eternal  de-  loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love,  therefore  with 

crees      not 

Jerfxxxi/s!  loving  kindness  have  I  drawn  thee,"  is  sometimes 
made  to  teach  the  doctrine  of  eternal  decrees,  and  the  certain 
salvation  of  the  elect;  but  God  here  simply  assures  the 
tribes  of  Israel  of  deliverance  and  protection  on  account  of 
the  love  he  bore  them  in  former  times,  when  with  an  out- 
stretched arm  he  brought  them  from  the  land  of  Egypt.  In 
the  familiar  words  found  in  Matt,  xxii,  4,  "  Many  are  called, 
but  few  chosen  "  which  have  been  so  many  times 

Many  called, 

few  chosen.  quoted  as  excluding  arbitrarily  the  unelect  from 
the  hope  of  salvation,  the  context  clearly  shows  that  the 
Saviour  only  teaches  us  that,  while  all  are  invited  to  the 
Gospel  feast,  few  comparatively  are  admitted,  simply  from 
neglecting  to  secure  the  necessary  and  available  qualifica- 
tions. 

The  Church  of  Rome  gives  an  amusing  illustration  of  the 
arror  we  are  now  considering.    In  their  book  of  canon  law 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  153 

in  the  chapter  relating  to  lay  trustees  of  Church  property, 
they  say,  "This  is  prohibited  in  the  law  of  Church  of 

Rome     upon 

Moses,  who  says,  'Thou  shalt  not  plow  with  an  l^SSSiS* 
ox  and  an  ass  together ;'  that  is,  they  shall  not  haye  laymen 
as  trustees  of  Church  property  1 " 

"  The  phrase,  '  Blot  me  out  of  thy  book,'  (Exod.  xxxii,  32,) 
has  been  made  a  test  of  Christian  character,  so 

Blot  me  out 

that  they  who  could  not  say  they  were  willing  of  thy  bookt" 
to  be  eternally  damned  haye  been  regarded  as  destitute  of 
that  submission  which  is  the  evidence  of  a  new  birth.  But 
plainly  it  had  no  such  force  as  used  by  Moses.  He  meant  to 
say :  *  Forget  me ;  take  no  account  of  me  in  respect  to  any 
thing  proposed  concerning  the  future  destiny  of  thy  people ; 
pass  by  me ;  regard  me  as  not  written  in  thy  book ;'  without 
any  reference  to  eternal  woe."  22 

In  reference  to  that  most  sublime  of  all  revelations  made 
to  man,  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  no  human  presentation 
of  the  divine  mystery  can  approach  in  impressiveness,  or 
even  in  clearness,  the  utterances  of  the  sacred  writers.  No 
argument  setting  forth  the  perfect  humanity  of 
our  Lord  and  his  essential  divinity  can  be  so  Sc"Pture- 
effective  as  the  collated  passages  of  Holy  Scripture.  The 
"Word  of  God  becomes  flesh  before  our  eyes.  We  see  the 
perfect  human  being  growing  in  grace  and  favor  with  God 
and  man ;  eating,  sleeping,  weeping,  tempted,  praying  ;  and 
we  also  stand  awed  before  Him  who  heals  the  sick,  casts  out 
devils,  commands  the  waves  and  the  winds,  and  riiises  the 
dead.  Surely  he  can  be  no  other  than  Emmanuel,  God  with  us, 

"Dobie. 


154  THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

These  illustrations  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied,  but 
they  will  serve  to  impress  the  young  interpreter  with  the 
importance  of  a  careful  comparison  of  Scripture  with  Scrip- 
ture, and  of  a  close  examination  of  the  context. 

RULE  IY. 

Every  Scripture  must  be  interpreted  in  harmony 
with  the  analogy  or  rule  of  faith  ;  and  where  a 
passage  admits  of  two  possible  renderings,  that  is 
to  be  preferred  which  best  agrees  with  the  general 
teachings  of  the  writer,  and  is  in  harmony  with  all 
divine  revelation. 

If  the  Bible  is  all  inspired  of  the  Holy  Ghost  its  different 

parts   must  be  in  harmony  with    each    other. 
iSlies  unity.      There    win    be    unity    in    the    revelations  made 

of  God,  of  his  plan  of  salvation,  and  of  man's   condition 

without  the  Gospel,  and  under  its  influence.     This  is  what 

is  meant  by  the  analogy,  or  general  agreement,  of  faith.     This 

has  been  more  simply  stated,  to  meet  the  objection 

Analogy  of 

that  every  distinct  sect  and  every  individual  in- 
terpreter has  his  own  standard  of  faith  or  belief,  in  this  form  : 
no  interpretation  is  correct  which  makes  a  sacred  writer 
contradict  himself,  or  the  well-ascertained  sentiments  of  any 
of  the  rest.23  The  apostle  Paul  recognized  this  important 
rule  when  he  exhorted  the  Roman  brethren  to  prophesy  or 
preach  "  according  to  the  proportion  [or  analogy]  of  faith." 2* 
The  expression  is  identical  with  "  the  whole  tenor  of  Scrip- 
«  Dobie.  Z4  Eomans  xii,  ft, 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  155 

ture."  One  Scripture  passage  may  contain  all  that  God  has 
been  pleased  to  reveal  upon  a  given  subject.  It  when  one  pas- 

sape  may  sus- 

certainly  is  not  to  be  rejected  because  it  stands  tain  adoctrine. 
alone,  if  there  is  nothing  in  its  declaration,  when  clearly 
apprehended  from  its  context,  that  opposes  the  general  tenor 
of  revelation.  But  if  the  apparent  sense  of  a  given  passage 
is  directly  opposed  to  other  Scriptures,  or  to  the 

If  one  passage 

analogy  of  faith,  an  interpretation  is  to  be  sought     J®*™  others  u 

must  be  inter- 

for  it  which,  without  constraint  to  the  literal  ren-     preted  in  har- 
mony     with 

dering,  will  bring  it  into  unity  with  the  general 
teaching  of  the  Bible.    It  is  the  legitimate  office   of  the 
learned  expositor  to  consider  and  weigh  and  harmonize  these 
apparent  discrepancies. 

In  1  Cor.  iii,  15  we  read,  "If  any  man's  work  shall  be 
burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss  ;  but  he  himself  shall  False  founda- 
be  saved  so  as  by  fire."  "  The  modem  doctrine  pSlatm-y!  °f 
of  purgatory,  that  is,  that  sin  is  purged  by  literal  fire,  is 
derived  from  this  text.  Not  to  insist  on  the  meaning  of 
these  words  as  determined  by  their  connection,  we  bring  this 
modern  doctrine  of  purgatory  side  by  side  with  the  grand 
system  of  doctrines  concerning  which  there  never  has  been 
any  dispute ;  and  the  conclusion  to  which  we  come  is,  that 
any  such  interpretation  of  the  passage  must  be  false,  because 
it  goes  contrary  to  the  doctrines  of  the  new  birth,  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith,  the  merits  of  Christ's  atonement,  the  uniform 
doctrine  of  the  Bible  respecting  the  souls  of  the  departed, 
and  to  many  facts  recorded  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
in  the  New." 25 

«  Dobie. 


156  THE   WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

All  those  passages  in  the  Scriptures  which  speak  of  God  as 
Passages  ^  "  repenting,"  or  changing  his  mind,  as  coming  • 
ner  ofmST"  down  to  observe  what  is  passing  upon  the  earth, 
etc.,  are  to  be  interpreted  in  such  a  sense  as  to  harmonize  with 
the  revealed  truth  that  God  is  a  Spirit,  omniscient,  unerring, 
and  everywhere  present.  In  these  Scriptures  he  simply 
speaks  after  the  manner  of  men,  and  does  what,  if  men  did 
these  things,  would  be  predicable  of  them.  All  passages 
that  seem  to  represent  him  as  material,  local,  limited  in 
knowledge  or  in  power,  are  to  be  interpreted  agreeably  to 
the  general  tenor  of  Scripture  as  to  his  character  and  at- 
tributes. 

No  undue  wrench  is  given  to  the  sacred  writings  by  such 
a  course.  The  necessity  arises  out  of  the  nature  of  things.  It 
Why  God  is  is  entirely  reasonable  and  natural  that  God  should 

thus    spoken 

of.  reveal  himself  in  this  wise.     How  can  he  mani- 

fest himself  to  us  but  by  material  figures  and  words  that  are 
necessarily  limited  in  their  application  ?  But  while  he  mani- 
fests his  sentiments  and  his  acts  in  these  finite  forms  he  dis- 
tinctly declares  his  spiritual  nature  and  his  divine  power 
and  Godhead,  so  that  an  intelligent  mind  can  readily  inter- 
pret these  human  representations  in  accordance  with  the 
spiritual  nature  of  God. 

We  select  from  Dobie's  "  Key  to  the  Bible "  two  illustra- 
tions of  the  other  application  of  the  rule,  that  where  two  or 
Of  two  or  more  meanings  can  be  drawn  from  the  text,  that 

more     mean- 
ings the  one     one  is  to  be  chosen  which  best  agrees  with  the 

in      harmony 

te^hiS?  of     general  teachings   of  the   Scriptures.     In  Matt. 

the   Bible  to 

be  chosen.         xyi,  18  we  read,  "  And  I  say  unto  thee,  that  thoii 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  157 

ait  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church ;  and 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it."  There  are  at 
least  three  distinct  shades  of  meaning  which  these  words 
may  reasonably  bear.  1.  Upon  such  confessions  as  this  that 
thou  hast  made  of  my  Messiahship  I  will  build  my  Church  ; 
or,  2.  Upon  this  truth  that  I  am  Messiah  I  will  Rock  on  which 

Christ    builds 

build  my  Church ;  or,  3.  By  means  of  thee,  his  Church. 
Peter,  a  man  of  firm  and  resolute  will,  will  I  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Church  as  a  distinct  community  in  the  world. 
The  first  two  are  both  consistent  with  all  scriptural  doc- 
trines, are  perhaps  most  commonly  received  by  interpreters, 
and  many  considerations  may  be  urged  in  their  favor ;  but 
the  last  is  in  harmony  with  actual  historical  facts  recorded 
in  Acts  ii,  14-36,  and  in  chapter  10  of  the  same  book, 
where,  by  Peter's  instrumentality,  the  Church,  composed  both 
of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  was  established  as  a  distinct  body  in 
the  world.  And  such  an  announcement  from  the  lips  of  our 
Lord,  in  the  circumstances,  was  both  appropriate  and  sig- 
nificant. It  was  just  such  an  announcement  as  he  was  wont 
to  make  frequently  of  what  the  disciples  were  to  endure  and 
accomplish ;  and  we,  therefore,  prefer  this  last  sense  of  the 
passage  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  rule.  The  words  of 
our  Lord  when  recalled  by  Peter  in  the  times  of  stern  conflict 
through  which  he  passed,  would  administer  an  unspeakable 
solace  to  his  heart,  and  to  the  hearts  of  all  the  other  disci 
pies.  But  there  is  not  one  syllable  in  this  text  to  justify  the 
wild,  foolish,  and  wicked  pretenses  of  the  Papal  Church 
founded  upon  it. 

In  James  v,  20  it  is  written,  "He  that   converteth  the 


158  THE   WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way  shall  save  a  soul  from 
death,  and  shall  hide  a  multitude  of  sins."  This  text  will 
Covering  a  bear  two  renderings.  1.  The  soul  saved,  and 

multitude    of 

sins.  the  multitude  of  sins  that  are  hid,  may  refer  to 

the  person  who  reclaims  his  erring  brother ;  or,  2.  They  may 
refer  to  the  brother  reclaimed.  If  we  adopt  the  first,  the 
teaching  of  the  apostle  would  be,  that  he  who  reclaimed  a 
brother  from  backsliding  would  save  thereby  his  own  soul, 
and  hide  a  multitude  of  his  own  sins.  But  does  the  apostle 
mean  this?  According  to  the  rule  we  must  consider  the 
design  of  the  writer  and  the  general  system  of  revealed 
truth.  Our  impression,  upon  consideration  of  the  writer's 
object  and  line  of  thought — showing  the  benefit  that  would 
accrue  to  others  through  devout  and  fervent  prayer — and  of 
the  whole  tenor  of  his  teachings  in  his  epistle,  is,  that  his 
language  refers  to  the  person  who  is  reclaimed,  and  that  he 
holds  it  out  as  a  motive  to  action  in  the  work  of  reclaiming 
him.  As  respects  the  harmony  of  the  first  view  with  the 
analogy  of  faith  there  is  no  doubt  it  is  wholly  at  variance 
with  it.  We  are  saved  by  faith  in  Christ,  not  by  acts  of 
kindness  done  to  erring  brethren.  Hence  we  conclude  the 
meaning  of  the  passage  is,  He  who  reclaims  a  fallen  brother 
is  the  means  of  saving  a  backslider's  soul,  and  of  hiding  his 
sins.  This  is  consistent  with  the  design  of  the  writer,  and 
with  the  general  harmony  of  revelation. 

As  a  general  remark  in  reference  to  what  may 

Difficulties  of 

den?eofethe'ir     be  called  the   difficulties  or  contradictions  of 

honesty,    and  .       jn  „ 

no    occasion     Scripture,  it  may  be  said  that  they  afford  one 

for     discour- 
agement. of  the  kegt  eyidenceg  that  there  was  no  collu- 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  159 

sion  between  the  writers  to  secure  absolute  harmony ;  that 
they  never  have  been  so  serious  as  to  discourage  good  men 
in  their  grateful  task  of  studying  out  the  means  of  their 
reconcilement ;  that  as  knowledge  has  increased  these  diffi- 
culties have  disappeared ;  that  no  one,  or  collection  of  them, 
has  been  considered  of  so  serious  a  moment  as  to  allow  the 
foes  of  the  Bible  to  rest  their  objection  to  Scripture  upon 
it;  but  every  new  school  of  doubters  has  discarded  the 
objections  of  others,  and  presented  fresh  ones  of  their  own. 
Some  of  these  difficulties  arise  out  of  the  statistics  of  the  Old 
Testament  when  quoted  with  apparent  variations  in  the 
New,  out  of  the  comparison  of  genealogical  occasion  of 

these  difficul- 

tables,  and  out  of  the  relation  of  the  same  event  ties- 
by  two  evangelists  in  different  words,  or  the  omission  or 
introduction  of  some  one  feature  of  an  occurrence  by  one  of 
the  Gospel  writers.  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  difficul- 
ties arising  from  the  adjustment  of  the  new  developments  of 
natural  science  with  long  received  opinions  in  reference  to 
the  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  As  the  enemies  of  the  Bible 
were  never  more  active  than  at  present  in  attempting  to 

weaken  the  faith  of  Christians  in  their  Holy     Abundant  an- 
swers  to   all 
Scriptures,  so,  by  the  good  providence  of  God,     difficulties. 

there  was  never  a  period  when  so  many,  and  such  in- 
telligent and  learned  pens,  were  interested  in  responding 
to  these  attacks.  There  has  not  been  a  difficulty  or 
an  apparent  contradiction  suggested  that  has  not  been 
examined.  Every  obstacle  has  been  fairly  looked  in  the 
face,  and  the  literature  of  the  Church  is  now  rich  in  the 
clearest  and  most  satisfactory  defenses  of  the  inspiratioc 


160  THE   WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

and  essential  harmony  and  purity  of  its  volume  of  revealed 
truth. 

The  precious  works  of  a  former  age,  such  as  those  of 
Ancient  and     Lardner  and  Home,   have  been  by  no  means 

modern  apol- 
ogists, superseded,  and  can  now  be  profitably  consulted 

in  reference  to  nearly  every  difficulty  arising  about  or  within 
the  Scriptures.  But  our  modern  commentators,  like  Ol- 
shausen,  Tholuck,  Hengstenberg,  Stier,  Alford,  Lange, 
Ellicott,  Barnes,  Whedon,  and  Nast,  meet  with  great  spirit, 
and  with  most  satisfactory  results,  the  latest  imputations  of 
error  made  by  false  friends  or  pronounced  foes  upon  the 
sacred  record.  It  would  swell  our  book  to  undesirable  pro- 
portions to  introduce  the  more  prominent  difficulties  of 
inspiration  suggested  by  such  sincere  but  unbalanced  minds 
where  an-  as  the  author  of  a  late  work  upon  the  "  Human 

B.wers  to   ob- 

bectfoundmay  Element  in  the  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures." 
Every  difficulty,  however,  has  been  met,  and  may  be  found 
fully  answered  in  such  volumes  as  "Lee  upon  Inspiration," 
and  Garbett  upon  "  God's  Word  Written." 

Every  young  interpreter  may  safely  assure  himself  that 
May  be  assur-     somewhere,  not  far  from  his  hand,  in  the  litera- 

ed  an  answer 

found adllybe  ture  which  the  Master  has  inspired  his  disciples 
to  place  at  the  disposition  of  his  Church,  a  convincing 
response  can  be  found  to  every  charge.  It  is  proper,  how- 
ever, to  guard  the  teachers  of  others  in  this  respect.  Never 
venture  upon  the  exposition  of  a  scriptural  difficulty  without 
oeing  satisfied  that  you  have  a  clear  and  pertinent  view  of 
the  objection  or  difficulty,  and  its  answer.  Nothing  is  more 
n armful  than  to  leave  upon  an  ingenuous  young  mind  an 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.  161 

unsatisfactory  solution  to  an  apparent  difficulty    Never  ^ve  an 

unsatisfactory 

of  Scripture.  It  is  better  to  leave  the  difficulty  answer, 
unanswered,  with  the  presumption  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil 
that  the  trouble  arises  rather  from  want  of  knowledge  in 
yourself  than  from  any  intrinsic  contradiction  in  Scripture. 
Says  Alford,  dean  of  Canterbury,  in  reference  to  apparent 
discrepancies  between  the  evangelists,  "  We  are  certain  that 
each  of  the  Gospel  narratives  is,  in  the  highest  sense,  true ; 
but  we  are  not  certain  that  we  can  by  sight  Dean  Alford 

,  «    ,.          upon  discrep- 

assure  ourselves,  in  each  apparent  case  of  dis-     ancles  in  the 

New     Testa- 

crepanry,  that  it  is  so.  I  have  elsewhere  main-  ment- 
tained,  and  I  maintain  here,  that  if  we  could  know  exactly 
how  any  given  event  related  in  the  Gospels  happened,  we 
should  at  once  be  able  to  account  for  the  variations  in  the 
narratives,  and  the  separate  truth  of  each  would  be  shown ; 
but  not  knowing  the  exact  details  of  any  event  thus  nar- 
rated, nor  the  position  of  the  narrator  with  respect  to  it,  we 
cannot  undertake  to  reconcile  apparent  discrepancies  between 
the  evangelists.  Our  plain  duty  in  making  a  right  use  of 
the  Gospels  is  firmly  and  fearlessly  to  recognize  these,  and  to 
leave  them  as  fearlessly  unsolved  if  no  honest  solution  can  be 
found.  A  way  may  be  opened  by  and  by  in  the  process  of 
human  discovery,  and  the  toil  of  human  thought,  or  the  time 
for  a  solution  may  not  come  till  the  day  when  all  things  shall 
be  known."  2G 

Henry  Rogers  happily  says,  in  substance,  in  his  "  Greyson 
Letters:"   "My  second  theory  of  dealing  with     Henry  RoKem 

,  upon  discrep- 

the  apparent  discrepancies  of  the  Bible  is  a  very     ancles. 

26  How  to  Study  the  New  Testament,  page  11. 
11 


162  THE   WOKD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

simple  one,  and  not  less  admissible,  namely,  to  let  them 
alone;  to  postpone  them  till  further  light  is  thrown  upon 
them ;  not  to  anticipate  the  true  theory  of  them ;  to  refrain 
from  pronouncing  them  either  insoluble  or  otherwise.  The 
general  evidence  for  the  Bible  is  such  as  to  justify  this  delay. 
We  can  afford  to  wait.  A  Christian  may  say  with  justice, 
*  When  I  can  solve  these  difficulties,  I  am  glad ;  when  I  can- 
not, I  am  willing  to  suspend  my  judgment ;  they  do  not,  they 
never  can,  (whatever  be  the  solution,)  shake  the  substantive 
credibility  of  the  great  facts  and  main  statements  of  the 
scriptural  documents ;  adequate  evidence  against  these  must 
be  an  earthquake  which  shall  subvert  the  very  foundations 
of  the  faith  and  leave  the  whole  fabric  a  wreck,  not  a  flash 
of  critical  lightning,  which  grazes,  or  splinters,  or  even  dis- 
lodges a  stone  or  two  in  some  remote  turret  or  ornamental 
pinnacle.  I  can  wait ;  I  can  afford  to  wait ;  no  one  hurries 
me;  why  should  I  be  so  incontinent  of  my  opinion  as  to 
pronounce  before  I  am  sure  that  I  have  all  the  possible  data  ? 
Whether  the  discrepancies  are  ultimately  to  be  disposed  of 
by  supposing  something  less  than  indefectible  inspiration  for 
every  particle  of  canonical  Scripture,  or  by  finding  that  they 
yield,  as  so  many  otliers  have  already  done,  to  more  accurate 
recensions  of  the  text,  or  more  severe  collation  of  the  Scrip- 
ture with  itself  or  with  profane  writers,  or  unexpected  re- 
coveries  of  fragments  of  ancient  history,  I  leave  for  a  while ; 
for,  either  way,  the  things  which  must  thus  be  left  are  but 
4  dust  in  the  balance ;'  subtracted  or  added,  they  will  not 
appreciably  affect  the  result;  and  so,  whether  zealous  Stephen 
really  confounded  the  sepulcher  which  Jacob  bought  of  the 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  163 

father  of  Shechem  with  that  which  Abraham  bought  of 
Ephron  the  Hittite  or  not,  I  shall  magnanimously  leave  to 
future  inquiries,  and  sleep  none  the  worse  for  it.'  " 27 

RULE  V. 

The  spiritual  instruction  intended  to  be  imparted 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  should  be  carefully  and  earnest- 
ly sought  in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture. 

Revelation  is  a  book  written  in  human  language,  and  as  a 
book  is-  to  be  interpreted  according  to  the  well-defined  laws 
of  language  and  grammar ;  but  it  is  a  book,  the  JJ®k  Bib\®  e^ 
whole  of  which  is  indited  for  a  special  purpose,  p°urpaosefecl 
and  of  which  inspiration  itself  affirms  that  it  is  all  profitable 
"  for  instruction  in  righteousness."  We  are  no  advocates  of  a 
fanciful  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  "We  do  not  believe  in 
mystical  significations,  or  in  a  manifold  sense  attributed  to 
the  sacred  writings.  We  enjoin  a  strict  gram-  Not  a  fanciful 

nor    mystical 

matical  rendering  of  the  text,  as  modified  only     meaning. 
by  the  current  meaning  of  the  language  used  by  the  writers 
themselves.    But  after  the   exact  and  literal  meaning  has 
been  discovered,  then  comes  the  important  inquiry,  What 
is  the  spiritual  lesson  that  God  proposes  to  teach 

What    doei 

in  this  history,  poetry,  prophecy,  ceremony,  para-  God  teach? 
ble,  miracle,  and  epistle  ?  We  do  not  by  any  means  propose 
to  spiritualize  a  secular  event,  to  find  types  in  persons  not 
said  in  Scripture  to  be  typical,  but  to  ask,  What  lesson  by 
this  plain  history,  or  by  the  sketch  of  this  individual,  would 
37  The  Greyson  Letters,  page  461. 


164:  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

the  Holy  Spirit  have  us  learn  ?  Hagenbach,  in  speaking  of 
the  work  of  Ernesti  in  introducing  a  new  and  literal  school 
of  biblical  interpretation,  remarks  that  his  "  ground  principle 
was  simply  this  :  to  interpret  the  Bible  according  to  its  literal 
verbal  sense,  and  to  let  the  volume  suffer  neither  at  the  hands 
of  any  assumed  authority  of  the  Church,  nor  of  the  feelings 
and  wishes  of  individuals  as  to  what  they  might  choose  to 
believe,  nor  of  sportive  and  allegorizing  fancy  such  as  the 
mystics  used  to  indulge  in,  nor  of  any  philosophical  system. 
He  adopted  in  this  the  main  principle  of  Hugo  Grotius,  who 
in  the  seventeenth  century  had  similarly  intrenched  himself. 
Ernesti  was  a  philologist.  He  had  employed  the  same  prin- 
ciples in  the  interpretation  of  the  writers  of  Greece  and  Eome 
which  he  employed  later  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  ; 
and  he  was  right  in  this.  The  reformers  had  aimed  to  do 
the  same  thing.  But  he  overlooked  too  much,  perhaps,  this 
fact  —  that  in  order  to  apprehend  the  religious  truths  of  the 
Scriptures  there  is  needed,  not  only  a  knowledge  of  their 
verbal  and  historical  characteristics,  but  a  spiritual  appro- 
priation of  their  truths,  so  that  one  can  enter  limngly  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  Bible.  Who  would  deny  that,  in  order 
to  understand  an  epistle  of  Paul,  there  must  be  a  very  dif- 
ferent manner  of  approaching  and  viewing  it  than  would  be 
needed  with  the  letters  of  Cicero,  since  the  whole  circle  of 
ideas  is  different  in  the  two  ?  Religious  writings  can  only  be 
truly  apprehended  by  a  penetrating  spirit,  which  can  strike 
through  the  whole  web  of  grammar  and  logic  to  the  funda- 


28  German  Rationalism,  Clark's  edition,  page  76. 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  165 

Westcott  happily  remarks  :  "  When  the  interpreter  of  Scrip- 
ture has  availed  himself  of  every  help  which  historical  criti- 
cism can  furnish  for  the  elucidation  of  the  text — when,  by  the 
exact  investigation  of  every  word,  the  most  diligent  attention 
to  every  variation  of  tense,  and  even  of  order,  the  clearest 
recollections  of  every  phrase,  he  has  obtained  a  Westcott  up. 

J   r  on      spiritual 

jsense  of  the  wholCj  perfect  in  its  finer  shades  and  tfon!PH 
local  coloring,  no  less  than  in  its  general  outline  and  effect — 
his  work  is  as  yet  only  half  done.  The  literal  sense  is  but 
the  source  from  which  the  spiritual  sense  is  to  be  derived ; 
but  exactly  in  proportion  as  a  clear  view  is  gained  of  all  that 
is  special  in  the  immediate  object  and  position  of  each  writer, 
it  will  be  found  that  the  simple  record  appears  to  be  instin,at 
with  divine  life,  for  the  external  circumstances  and  mental 
characteristics  of  the  writer  are  not  mere  accidents ;  but  inas- 
much as  they  influence  his  apprehension  and  expression  of 
the  truth,  they  become  a  part  of  his  divine  message,  and  the 
typical  specialty  which  springs  from  this  is  the  condition  at 
once  of  the  usefulness  and  of  the  universality  of  Scripture. 
The  existence  of  an  abiding  spiritual  sense  underlying  the 
literal  text  of  the  Old  Testament  is  sufficiently  attested  by 
the  quotations  in  the  New.  Unless  it  be  recognized,  many 
of  the  interpretations  of  the  evangelists  and  apostles  must 
appear  forced  and  arbitrary  ;  but  if  we  assume  that  it  exists, 
their  usage  appears  to  furnish  an  adequate  clew  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  its  most  intricate  mazes." 29 

Home  remarks  in  his  "Introduction,"  that  the  errors  into 
which  some  have  fallen  in  discovering  fanciful  rather  than 
89  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  the  Gospels. 


166  THE  WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

spiritual  revelations  in  the  Scriptures  is  not  a  sufficient  reason 
for  rejecting  a  wholesome  principle.  It  should  not  be  cast 
Home  on  the  away  because  it  has  been  abused,  "since  human 

spiritual         - 


port^ Scrip-  error  can  neyer  inyajiflate  the  truth  of  God." 
"  The  literal  sense,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  it  has  been  well 
observed,  is,  undoubtedly,  first  in  point  of  nature,  as  well  as 
in  order  of  signification;  and  consequently,  when  investi- 
gating the  meaning  of  any  passage,  this  must  be  ascertained 
before  we  proceed  to  search  out  its  spiritual  import  ;  but  the 
true  and  genuine,  or  spiritual,  sense  excels  the  literal  in  dig- 
nity, the  latter  being  only  the  medium  of  conveying  the 
former,  which  is  more  evidently  designed  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
For  instance,  in  Num.  xxi,  8,  9,  compared  with  John  iii,  14, 
the  brazen  serpent  is  said  to  have  been  lifted  up  in  order  to 
signify  the  lifting  up  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the 
world;  and,  consequently,  that  the  type  might  serve  to 
designate  the  antitype." 

We  have  fully  illustrated  this  rule  in  the  previous  chapter, 
when  speaking  of  the  requisition  which  the  discovery  of  the 
spiritual  lessons  of  Holy  Scripture  makes  upon  the  biblical 
student  for  careful  study. 


THE  WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  167 


CHAPTER    VII. 

INTERPRETATION  OP  PARABLE,  POETRY,  AND  PROPHECY. 

PARABLE. 

SOME  of  the   most  interesting  and   instructive  portions 
of  the  Gospels  are  embodied  in  the  para- 

The  parable. 

bles.  It  has  been  noticed  that,  while  our  Lord 
from  the  commencement  of  his  public  ministry  was  accus- 
tomed to  speak  in  figurative  language,  as  when  he  points  to 
the  lilies  of  the  field,  the  fowls  of  the  air,  the  new  cloth  upon 
an  old  garment,  new  wine  in  old  bottles,  yet  his  prjncjpai  par_ 
discourses  in  parables  were  confined  to  the  last  during  the 

last    year  of 

year  of  his  life.  The  parable  has  ever  been  a  Christ's  life. 
favorite  channel  among  Eastern  people,  and  especially  among 
Jewish  teachers,  for  the  conveyance  of  truth.  But  the  para- 
bles of  Jesus  are  distinguished  from  all  others  in  their  great 
simplicity,  in  their  wonderful  truth  to  nature,  and  in  the 
significant  spiritual  lessons  which  they  teach. 

Our  Saviour  may  have  adopted  the  parable  to  show  the 

harmony  between  the  laws  of  nature  and  the     Reasons    for 

using    para- 
doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  thus  presenting  an  in-     kies. 

direct  evidence  that  they  both  came  from  the  same  Author. 
Thus  the  sower  of  natural  and  spiritual  seed  labors  under 
nearly  the  same  general  laws  of  success. 

Tholuck  remarks  "  that  the  Author  of  the  spiritual  king- 
dom is  also  the  Author  of  the  natural  kingdom,  and  both 


168  THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

kingdoms  develop  themselves  after  the  same  laws.  For  this 
reason,  the  similitudes  which  the  Redeemer  drew  from  the 
Thoiuck  on  kingdora  of  nature  are  not  mere  similitudes 
the  kingdoms  which  serve  the  purpose  of  illustration,  but  are 

of  nature  and 

internal  analogies,  and  nature  is  a  witness  for 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Hence  was  it  long  since  announced  as 
a  principle,  that  '  whatever  exists  in  the  earthly  is  found 
also  in  the  heavenly  kingdom.'  Were  it  not  so,  those  simili- 
tudes would  not  possess  that  power  of  conviction  which  they 
carry  to  every  unsophisticated  mind."  l 

By  connecting  religious  truth  with  natural  objects,  our 
Aid  his  hear-     Lord  would  aid  his  hearers  in  holding  his  dis- 

ers  to  remem- 
ber his  words,     courses  in  their  memories.     Every  lily  and  bird 

and  merchantman  of  goodly  pearls,  every  marriage  feast, 
every  returning  season  of  seed-sowing,  would  afresh  remind 
his  disciples  of  the  words  of  Him  "  who  spake  as  never  man 
spake."  But  his  parables  served  to  illustrate  and  impress 
upon  the  minds  of  his  disciples  the  truths  that  he  presented. 
They  were  blinded  by  prejudices  resulting  from  their  educa- 
iiiustratedand  tion  and  Jewish  expectations  in  reference  to  the 

impressed  the 

truth-  character  of  the  Messiah's  kingdom,  and  slow 

to  believe  and  receive  the  spiritual  nature  of  Christ's  govern- 
ment. "By  teaching  in  parables,  and  presenting  the  con- 
cerns of  his  kingdom  under  the  image  of  familiar  objects 
and  earthly  relations,  he  laid  the  groundwork  of  a  most 
comprehensive  and  varied  instruction.  Many  aspects  of  the 
kingdom  were  thus  unfolded  to  them  in  a  form  they  could 
,  easily  grasp  and  distinctly  comprehend,  though  for  the  time 

1  Thoiuck  on  John  xv. 


THE   WOBD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  169 

all  remained,  like  the  symbols  of  the  Old  Testament  woiship, 
very  much  as  a  dark  and  unintelligible  cipher  to  their  view. 
That  cipher,  however,  became  lighted  up  with  meaning  when 
the  personal  work  of  Christ  was  finished,  and  the  Spirit 
descended  with  power  to  make  application  of  its  blessings, 
and  the  minds  of  the  disciples  were  enabled  to  grasp  the 
higher  as  well  as  lower  scheme  of  doctrine  exhibited  in  the 
representation.  Through  the  earthly  form  they  could  now 
descry  the  spiritual."  2 

There  is  one  reason  which  Jesus  himself  gives  for  teaching, 
in  the  latter  part  of  his  ministry,  almost  entirely  in  parables : 
that  it  was  in  some  sense  a  rebuke  and  judgment  on  his  hearers 
for  not  receiving  the  truth  when  presented  in  a  simple  and 
direct  form.  At  the  close  of  the  parable  of  the  sower  he 
answers  the  question  of  the  disciples,  why  he  thus  spoke  in 
parables,  by  saying,  "Unto  you  it  is  given  to  The  parable 

[.  ,n       ,  .        n  /,  ,  used    to    vail 

know  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;     truth  because 

it    had    been 

but  to  them  it  is  not  given  :  for  whosoever  hath,  neglected. 
to  him  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  more  abundance  ;  but 
whosoever  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  away  even  that 
he  hath.  Therefore  speak  I  to  them  in  parables :  because 
they  seeing,  see  not ;  hearing,  they  hear  not ;  neither  under- 
stand." "  The  import  of  the  statement  is,"  says  Fairbairn, 
"  that  the  disciples,  having  to  a  certain  extent  used  the  privi- 
lege they  possessed,  having  improved  the  talents  committed 
to  them,  were  to  be  intrusted  with  more;  while  the  body 
of  the  people,  having  failed  to  make  a  similar  use  of  their 
opportunities — remaining  destitute  of  divine  knowledge,  not- 
2  Faii-bairn's  Herjnepeutics. 


170  THE   WORD    OF    GOD   OPENED. 

withstanding  all  that  had  been  taught  them — were  to  have 
their  means  of  knowing  abridged,  were  to  be  placed  under  a 
more  indirect  and  vailed  method  of  instruction.  This  mode 
This  is  anaio-  of  dealing  was  in  perfect  accordance  with  the 
Christ's  work.  whole  nature  and  tendency  of  the  work  of  Christ 
in  its  relation  to  the  hearts  of  men,  which  always  carried 
along  with  it  two  ends,  the  one  displaying  the  severity,  and 
the  other  the  goodness  of  God.  From  the  first  he  was  '  set 
for  the  fall,'  as  well  as  '  the  rising  again,'  of  many  in  Israel — 
for  the  enlightenment  and  salvation  first,  but  if  that  failed,  then 
for  the  growing  hardness  and  aggravated  guilt  of  the  people." 3 
Mr.  Gladstone,  the  Christian  statesman  and  scholar,  re- 
marks in  his  criticism  upon  that  original  and  very  suggestive 

3  Fairbairn.  "And  now  comes,"  says  Dean  Alford,  in  his  interesting  volume 
entitled  "  How  to  Study  the  New  Testament,"  "  a  great  and  mighty  change  in 
our  Lord's  teaching  to  the  people,  recorded  for  us  by  St.  Matthew  alone.  He 
had  spoken  plainly  to  them  in  the  sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  doubtless  in  many 
other  discourses  as  he  went  up  and  down  Galilee.  But  they  had  rejected  his 
teaching,  plain  as  it  was.  From  time  to  time,  therefore,  he  withdrew  his  plain 
speaking,  and  had  recourse  to  a  new  and  hidden  method  of  teaching.  The 
parable  was  a  lesson  which  might  bo  heard  and  not  heard;  heard  alike  out- 
wardly by  all,  and  yet  differently  by  each,  according  to  his  capacity  for  appre- 
hending spiritual  truth.  Henceforth  the  Lord  teaches  in  parables,  explaining 
all  in  private  to  his  disciples.  And  of  these  parables  we  have  the  richest  col- 
lection in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  this  Gospel,  (Matthew.)  There  the  whole 
idea  and  progress  and  destiny  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  are  unfolded.  Its  be- 
ginnings among  men,  in  the  parable  of  the  sower;  its  counterfeits,  and  their 
treatment  by  us  and  by  God,  in  that  of  the  tares ;  its  vast  outward  extent,  from 
the  smallest  beginnings,  in  that  of  the  mustard  seed;  its  inward  purifying  and 
transforming  power,  in  that  of  the  leaven;  the  two  ways  in  which  men  find  it, 
one  by  chance  in  a  field  which  he  gives  up  all  he  has  to  buy,  another  by  search. 
ttlso  giving  up  all  to  acquire  it  when  found ;  and  then,  finally,  the  ultimate  des- 
tiny of  the  good  and  bad  in  it,  in  the  parable  of  the  draw-net."— How  to  Study 
the  N'e^o  Testament,  page  62. 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.        171 

Volume  lately  published  in  England  by  an  anonymous  author 
and  entitled  "  Ecce  Homo  : "  "  There  is  another  characteristic 
of  the  parables.  In  all  of  the  greater  ones  which  present 
their  subject  in  detail,  Christ  himself,  when  they  are  inter- 
preted, fills  a  much  higher  place  than  that  simply  of  a  teacher 
divinely  accredited.  They  all  shadow  forth  a  dispensation, 
which,  in  all  its  parts,  stands  related  to  and  dependent  on  a 
central  figure :  and  that  central  figure  is  in  every  Christ  holds 

J       the    supreme 

case  but  two  our  Saviour  himself.  He  is  the  J^iai  lh 
sower  of  the  seed,  the  owner  of  the  vineyard,  the  house- 
holder, in  whose  field  of  wheat  the  enemy  intermixed  the 
tares;  the  lord  of  the  unforgiving  servant;  the  nobleman 
who  went  into  a  far  country,  and  gave  out  the  talents  and 
said,  '  Occupy  till  I  come  ;'  lastly,  the  bridegroom  among  the 
virgins,  wise  and  foolish.  In  every  one  of  these  our  Saviour 
appears  in  the  attitude  of  kingship.  He  rules,  directs,  and 
furnishes  all.  He  punishes  and  rewards.  Every  one  of  these, 
when  the  sense  is  fully  apprehended,  repeats,  as  it  were,  or 
anticipates  the  procession  of  the  day  of  Palms,  and  asserts 
his  title  to  dominion.  They  must  be  considered,  surely,  as 
very  nearly  akin,  if  they  are  not  more  than  nearly  akin,  to 
declarations  of  his  deity.  Two  others  there  are  which  have 
not  yet  been  mentioned.  One  is  the  parable  of  the  house- 
holder, who  planted  a  vineyard  and  went  into  a  far  country, 
and  sent  his  servants  to  receive  his  share  of  the  produce.  In 
this  parable  our  Lord  is  not  the  master,  but  the  master's 
heir,  the  person  whose  the  vineyard  is  to  be,  and  who. 
being  sent  to  perform  the  office  in  which  other  messengers 
had  failed,  is  put  to  death  by  the  cruel  and  contumacious 


172  THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

tenants.4  But  this  parable,  if  it  sets  forth  something  less 
than  his  kingship,  also  sets  forth  much  more,  and  embodies 
the  great  mystery  of  his  death  by  wicked  hands.  There  is, 
also,  the  parable  of  a  certain  king  which  made  a  marriage 
for  his  son ; 5  a  relation  which  involves  far  more  than  had 
commonly  been  expressed  in  his  direct  teaching  among  the 
people.  Upon  the  whole,  then,  the  proposition  will  stand 
good,  that  these  parables  differ  from,  and  are  in  advance  of, 
the  general  instruction  respecting  the  person  of  the  Redeemer 
in  the  first  three  Gospels,  and  place  him  in  a  rank  wholly 
above  that  of  a  mere  teacher,  however  true  and  holy.  They 
set  forth  that  difference  from  previous  prophets  and  agents 
of  the  Almighty,  which  has  been  noticed  by  the  apostle  in 
his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  where  he  says  that  '  Moses  verily 
was  faithful  in  all  his  house  as  a  servant ;  but  Christ  as  a  son, 
over  his  own  house.'  " 6 

First  rule  •  ^n  interpreting  a  parable  it  is  necessary  in  the 

derstant/ tXe     first  place  to  thoroughly  understand  it — to  have 

parable  in  all 

its  parts.  a  correct  apprehension  of  the  force  of  its  different 

symbols.  If  it  relates  to  a  feast,  the  Jewish  custom  as  to 
invitations,  seats,  garments,  hours,  must  be  distinctly  in  the 
mind.  If  it  relates  to  natural  history,  a  clear  idea  must  be 
obtained  of  the  nature  of  the  tree  or  fruit  or  grain.  For 
Parable  of  the  illustration,  in  the  parable  of  the  wheat  and  the 

wheat  and  the 

tares.  tares,  great  interest  was  added  to  it  in  a  dis- 

course by  Dr.  Thomson  (son  of  the  author  of  the  "  Land  and 
the  Book,"  who  was  himself  born  in  Palestine,  and  often  laid 

*  Matthew  xxi.  6  Matthew  xxii. 

•"Ecce  Homo,"  by  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone,  page  82. 


UNIVERSITY 
THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENE\    n  173 


when  an  infant  in  the  "  manger  "  of  a  caravansera,  or  inn)  by 
his  explanation  of  the  nature  of  the  "tares"  referred  to. 
They  are  a  species  of  spurious  and  poisonous  wheat,  looking 
at  first  very  much  like  the  true  grain  in  its  early  growth,  and 
hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  it  as  the  crop  is  growing  ; 
but  its  heads  never  fill  out.  While  the  true  wheat,  its  ker- 
nels filling  out,  becomes  heavy  in  its  head,  and  bends  upon 
the  stalk,  these  false  tares,  with  their  light  tops,  stand  impu- 
dently erect,  and  readily  expose  themselves  in  the  harvest  to 
the  searching  eye  and  gathering  hand  of  the  reaper. 

We  must  next  discover  from  the  context,  if  possible,  or  from 
the  general  scope  of  the  parable,  the  exact  idea  that 
the   Saviour   intended   to   illustrate   or   enforce,     context  flthe 

lesson   which 

There  is  in  every  one  of  them  a  leading  theme.     propofead  io?o 
Ordinarily  the  Saviour  states,  either  before  or  after 
he  relates  them,  the  object  of  their  utterance.    This,  above  all, 
is  to  be  seized  upon  and  made  to  be  the  key  to  unlock  the  vailed 
meaning  of  the  story.    Lisco,  in  his  Commentary,     LJSCO     upon 

the  kernel  of 

says,  "  This  is  the  center  and  kernel  of  the  parable,  tQe  parable. 
and  till  it  has  been  discovered  and  accurately  determined  we 
need  not  occupy  ourselves  with  the  individual  parts,  since 
these  can  only  be  seen  in  their  true  light  when  contemplated 
from  the  proper  center.  We  may  compare  the  whole  para- 
bolical representation  to  a  circle,  the  center  of  which  is  the 
divine  truth  or  doctrine,  and  the  radii  are  the  several  figura- 
tive traits  in  the  narrative.  So  long  as  wTe  do  not  stand  in 
the  center,  neither  does  the  circle  appear  in  an  entirely  round 
form,  nor  do  the  radii  seem  in  their  proper  order,  as  all 
tending  to  the  center,  and  in  beautiful  uniformity  :  this  is 


174  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

secured  when  the  eye  surveys  every  thing  from  the  center :  so 
it  is  precisely  in  the  parable.  If  we  have  brought  clearly  and 
distinctly  out  its  central  point,  its  principal  idea,  then  also  the 
relative  position  and  right  meaning  of  its  several  parts  be- 
come manifest,  and  we  shall  only  dwell  upon  these  in  so  far 
as  the  main  theme  can  thereby  be  rendered  more  distinct." 

Thus  the  affecting  and  marvelously  appropriate  and  beau- 
Main    lesson     tiful  parables  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  St.  Luke 

of  parables  in 

rftt  Luke!61'  were  called  forth  by  the  taunt  of  the  Pharisees 
that  Christ  received  sinners,  and  ate  with  them.  They  un- 
fold, under  a  variety,  but  closely-related  series,  of  illustra- 
tions, the  reason  for  the  course  he  had  taken,  which  had 
called  out  the  taunts  of  his  unfriendly  observers.  And  he 
shows  that  upon  the  most  obvious  principles  of  human 
nature,  which  even  his  foes  must  recognize,  the  merciful  love 
and  interest  of  God  in  behalf  of  the  lost  which  he  had  mani- 
fested in  his  course  toward  the  morally  abandoned  were 
justified. 

That  most  solemn  parable  of  the  rich  fool,  recorded  in  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  Luke,  was  called  out  by  the 

Parable  of  the 

impertinent  interruption  of  one  of  his  hearers, 
who,  having  become  convinced  of  the  divine  authority  of 
the  speaker,  lost  all  further  interest  in  his  subject,  and 
simply  desired  to  avail  himself  of  his  august  decision  in  the 
division  of  his  earthly  inheritance  with  his  brother.  In  view 
of  this,  how  pertinent  and  how  impressive  was  the  Saviour's 
parable,  prefaced  by  the  words,  "  Take  heed  and  bew^are  of 
covetousness :  for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abun- 
dance of  the  things  that  he  possesseth ;"  and  closing  with, 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.       175 

"  Tliou  fool,  this  night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  tliee : 
then  whose  shall  those  things  be  which  thou  hast  provided  ?  •'' 
In  the  instance  of  the  parable  in  the  twentieth  of  Matthew, 
on  account  of  the  unfortunate  interruption  of  the  Saviour's 
remark  by  the  opening  of  a  new  chapter,  there  is  at  first 
some  difficulty  in  apprehending  the  connection  and  applica- 
tion of  the  illustration  of  the  householder  and     The     house- 
holder    and 
his  laborers  employed  at  different  hours,  espe-     his  laborers. 

cially  of  the  summing  up :  "So  the  last  shall  be  first,  and  the 
first  last :  for  many  be  called,  but  few  chosen."  By  looking 
back  into  the  close  of  the  preceding  chapter  we  find  that 
Peter,  noticing  how  much  emphasis  Christ,  in  his  interview 
with  the  moral  and  amiable  young  ruler,  had  placed  upon 
the  giving  up  of  all  his  property,  with  characteristic  im- 
pulsiveness asks  what  reward  should  be  their's  who  had 
already  made  this  surrender  ?  The  Saviour  shows  him  that 
no  sacrifice  for  his  cause  would  go  unrewarded  in  the  heav- 
enly kingdom ;  but  something  more  was  required — service 
must  be  rendered  with  a  proper  spirit,  be  persevered  in  to 
the  end,  and  the  rewards  of  heaven  must  be  submissively  left 
in  the  Master's  hand.  Those  whose  abilities  and  opportuni- 
ties would  seem  to  place  them  first  will  some  of  them  be 
found  to  be  last ;  and  those  whose  humble  gifts  and  late  cal] 
into  the  work  might  seem  to  throw  them  into  the  shade, 
may  be  found  to  be  the  first  through  faithful  perseverance ; 
for  many  are  called  to  Christian  labor,  but  few  enter  upon  it 
with  the  right  spirit,  and  persevere  unto  the  end. 

Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  each  parable  has  its  specific 
lesson,  which  it  is  vital  for  its  comprehension  to  discover 


176  THE  WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

Individual  traits  may  sometimes  be  safely  selected  and  made 
individual       the  basis  of  discourse  if  care  is  taken  to  sho\v 

;raits  may 

tally  used6."      the  connection  in  which  they  stand  with  regard 
to  the  unity  of  the  entire  representation. 

This  thought  naturally  introduces  the  final  remark,  that 
Third  rule-  ffrwt  care  should  le  taken  not  to  interpret  separate- 
parts  *  must  ty,  <*>nd  out  of  their  relation  to  the  story  of  the  par- 

oot  be  inter- 

?heirdcoTnec^  ^,  ^  different  incidents  embodied  in  it.  The 
great  danger  in  expounding  parables  is  in  overdo- 
ing the  thing.  Every  sentence  of  the  story  is  made  to  have  as 
important  a  function  to  perform  as  the  whole  parable  itself.7 

Dr.  Fairbairn  remarks  in  reference  to  two  parables  which 
The  character  our  Lord  himself  interprets  :  From  them  we  see 
^pS^f^  "that  every  specific  feature  in  the  earthly  type 
has  its  correspondence  in  the  higher  line  of  things  it  repre- 
sents. Nothing,  on  the  one  hand,  appears  merely  for  orna- 
ment ;  while,  on  the  other,  nothing  is  wire-drawn,  or  made  to 
bear  a  meaning  that  seems  too  much  for  it." 

Such  an  interpretation  is  not  to  be  justified  as  the  one 
that  finds  in  the  fact  that  "five  virgins  were  wise,  and  five 
illustrations  foolish,"  that  just  one  half  of  the  number  of 

jf  false  infer- 
ences, nominal  Christians  are  true  disciples,  and  the 

7  An  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  peculiar  commentary  just  is- 
sued by  Eev.  W.  H.  Yan  Doren  upon  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  entitled  "A 
Suggestive  Commentary.1'  The  touching  parables  of  the  fifteenth  chapter  are 
fairly  over  laid  and  well-nigh  deprived  of  force  and  beauty  by  the  almost  innu- 
merable "  suggestions  "  made  upon  the  different  clauses  in  them.  The  concrete 
and  touching  pathos  of  the  story  is  lost  in  the  cunning  ingenuity  disclosed  in 
evolving  nice  shades  of  meaning  out  of  the  most  natural  and  ordinary  expres- 
Bi«TCB.  Such  commentaries  have  perhaps  a  "mission,"  but  they  need  wise  men 
to  be  benefited  and  not  abused  by  them. 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  177 

other  half  self-deceived  or  fallen  from  grace.  Neither  may 
one  infer  from  the  parable  of  the  sower  that  exactly  one 
quarter  of  those  that  hear  fail  to  receive  the  benefit  they 
ought  from  the  preaching  of  the  word. 

Even  Trench,  whose  work  upon  the  parables  is  above 
commendation,  errs  at  times  in  laying  too  much  stress  upon 

the  subordinate  sentences  of  the  parable,  and     Trench's  fan- 
ciful interpve- 
sometimes  in  seeking  a  fanciful  representation  of    p^rabieof the 

a  plain  story.  "  Thus  he  makes  the  parable  of  tan. 
the  good  Samaritan  teach  the  mission  and  example  of 
Christ.  The  traveler  is  i  human  nature,  or  Adam,  the  head  of 
the  race,'  who  leaves  the  heavenly  city  and  falls  into  the 
power  of  Satan,  and  is  all  but  killed.  Christ  now  finds  him 
and  restores  him.  The  wine  is  the  blood  which  Christ  shed, 
and  the  oil  is  the  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  binding 
up  is  the  sacraments  of  the  Church.  This  is  a  link  of  '  the 
chains,'  (traditionary  interpretation,)  for  he  quotes  largely 
from  the  early  fathers,  and  is  carried  away  on  the  flowery 
stream  of  their  rhetoric  with  great  pleasure."  Dobie,  in  his 
"Key  to  the  Bible,"  from  whence  the  preceding  remark 

upon  Trench  is  quoted,  adds,  "It  is  no  small     Little  difficul- 
ty in   under- 
COnSOlation  to  reflect  that  the  great  mass  of  plain     iS^^mean6 

people,  who  receive  the  Bible  as  the  word  of    bie. 

God,  find  but  little  difficulty  in  comprehending  the  precise 

point  aimed  at  in  these  Scriptures." 

POETRY. 
A  very  considerable  portion  of  the  Bible,  especially  of 

the  Old  Testament,  is  given  to  us  in  the  form  of  poetry. 

12 


178  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

This  form  of  revealing  truth  has  added  to  its  attraction  in 
all  ages,  and  rendered  it  especially  adapted  to  be 

Poetry  of  the 

held  in  the  memory,  and  to  become  an  abiding 
comfort  when  the  pious  man  finds  himself  deprived  of  the 
written  text. 

Sir  Patrick  Hurne,  when,  hid  in  a  sepulchral  vault,  "  he 

had  no  liffht  to  read  by,  having  committed  to 

Sir      Patrick  J ' 

memory  Buchanan's  Version  of  the  Psalms,  be- 
guiled the  weary  hours  of  his  confinement  by  repeating  them 
to  himself,  and  to  his  dying  day  he  could  repeat  every  one 
without  missing  a  word,  and  said  they  had  been  the  comfort 
of  his  life  by  night  and  day  on  all  occasions." 8  Probably  no 
portion  of  the  Scriptures  has  been  so  constantly  quoted,  or 
afforded  so  much  consolation  to  the  devout  of  all  ages  and 
countries,  as  the  poetry  of  the  Bible.  The  Psalms  were  read 
and  sung  by  the  Jews  in  their  services  from  David's  time, 
alms  gun  and  they  have  been  read  and  sung  by  Christians 
andaby  great  with  as  much  pleasure  and  profit  clown  to  our 

variety  of  per- 

sons-  day.      "  Augustine,"   says  Dean  Stanley,  "  was 

consoled  on  his  conversion  and  on  his  death-bed  by  the 
Psalms.  By  the  Psalms  Chrysostom,  Athanasius,  Savonarola, 
were  cheered  in  persecution.  With  the  wrords  of  a  psalm 
Polycarp,  Columba,  Hildebrand,  Bernard,  Francis  of  Assisi, 
Huss,  Jerome  of  Prague,  Columbus,  Henry  V.,  Edward  VI., 
Ximenes,  Xavier,  Melanchthon,  Jewel,  breathed  their  last. 
So  dear  to  Wallace  in  his  wanderings  was  his  Psalter  that 
during  his  execution  he  had  it  hung  before  him,  and  his  eyes 
remained  fixed  upon  it  as  the  one  consolation  of  his  dying 

8  Life  of  Sir  P.  Hume,  as  quoted  by  Stanley,  page  167,  second  seriea 


THE   WORD   OF    GOD    OPENED.  179 

hours.  The  sixty-eighth  psalm  cheered  Cromwell's  soldiers 
to  victory  at  D  unbar.  Locke,  in  his  last  days,  bade  his  friend 
to  read  the  Psalms  aloud,  and  it  was  while  in  wrapt  attention 
to  their  words  that  the  stroke  of  death  fell  upon  him.  Lord 
Burleigh  selected  them  out  of  the  whole  Bible  as  his  special 
delight.  They  were  the  frame-work  of  the  devotion  and  of 
the  war-cries  of  Luther ;  they  were  the  last  words  that  fell 
on  the  ear  of  his  imperial  enemy,  Charles  V." 9 

The  usual  license  allowed  in  the  interpretation  of  all  poetry 
must  be  given  to  the  sweet  singers  of  Israel :  their  To  be  inter 
rich  and  figurative  language  is  never  to  be  bent  cording  to  tile 

laws  of  rheto- 

to  the  severe  canons  of  a  grammatical  interpreta-  ric- 
tion  such  as  might  be  applied  to  the  history  and  to  the 
epistles  of  the  Bible.  The  ordinary  figures  of  rhetoric,  which 
are  to  be  read  in  accordance  with  laws  peculiar  to  them- 
selves and  which  are  found  in  all  our  higher  grammars,  are 
to  be  recognized  in  the  interpretation  of  poetic  Scriptures. 
Here  many  fall  into  error  in  attempting  to  fasten  Not  to  fagten 
a  doctrinal  statement  upon  the  highly-figurative  ftatementup. 

on  figurative 

language  of  these  poems.     Dobie  selects  a  few     ^nguage. 
passages  frequently  used  as  proof- texts  to  show  the  habit  of 
many  religious  writers  in  this  respect: 

The  wicked  are  estranged  from  the  womb : 
They  go  astray  as  soon  as  born,  speaking  lies. 
Their  poison  is  like  the  poison  of  a  serpent : 
They  are  like  the  deaf  adder  that  stoppeth  her  ear ; 
Which  will  not  hearken  to  the  voice  of  charmers, 
Charming  never  so  wisely.— PSALM  Iviii,  3-5. 

Thou  art  he  that  took  me  out  of  the  womb : 

Thou  didst  make  me  hope  on  my  mother's  breasts.— PSALM  xxii,  9. 

9  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,  second  series. 


J.80  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity, 

And  in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me. 

Purge  me  with  hyssop,  and  1  shall  be  clean ; 

"Wash  me,  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow. — PSALM  li,  5,  T. 
For  from  my  youth,  he  was  brought  up  with  me, 
As  with  a  father; 
And  I  have  guided  the  widow  from  my  mother's  womb. — JOB  xxxi,  19 

And  dost  thou  open  thine  eyes  upon  such  a  one, 

And  bringest  me  into  judgment  with  thee  ? 

Who  can  bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean  ? 

Wot  one. — JOB  xiv,  3,  4. 

"What  is  man,  that  he  should  be  clean? 

And  he  born  of  woman,  that  he  should  be  righteous  ?— JOB  xv,  14. 

I  have  said  to  corruption,  Thou  art  my  father : 

To  the  worm,  Thou  art  my  mother,  and  my  sister. — JOB  xvii,  14. 

They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way ; 

They  are  together  become  unprofitable ; 

There  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no  not  one. 

Their  throat  is  an  open  sepulchre ; 

With  their  tongues  they  have  used  deceit ; 

The  poison  of  asps  is  under  their  lips. — KOM.  iii,  12, 13. 

"  These  texts,"  the  writer  above  mentioned  remarks,  "  are 
made  the  proof-texts  respecting  man's  character,  without  any 
allowance  for  the  nature  of  the  composition,  or  of  the  subject- 
matter  of  which  they  treat.  But  the  most  illiterate  person 
must  see  that  language  such  as  the  above  is  not  the  language 
of  sober  statement,  but  of  highly-wrought  poetic  emotion, 
and  for  that  reason  it  requires  very  cautious  interpretation." 
To  show  still  further  the  error  of  such  a  course,  he  quotes  the 
following  passages  from  the  Psalms  and  Prophets,  in  which 
the  impossibility  of  a  literal  rendering  is  at  once  seen : 

Moab  is  my  washpot; 

Over  Edom  will  I  cast  my  shoe : 

Philistia,  triumph  thou  because  of  me.— PSA.  lx,  8. 


THE  WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  181 

But  I  am  a  worm,  and  no  man ; 

A  reproach  of  men,  and  despised  of  the  people. — PSA.  xxii,  6. 

God  came  down  from  Teman, 

And  the  Holy  One  from  Paran ; 

And  his  brightness  was  as  the  light. 

He  had  horns  coming  out  of  his  head ; 

And  there  was  the  hiding  of  his  power. 

Before  him  went  the  pestilence, 

And  burning  coals  went  forth  at  his  feet 

He  stood  and  measured  the  earth; 

He  beheld  and  drove  asunder  the  nations ; 

And  the  everlasting  mountains  were  scattered, 

The  perpetual  hills  did  bow; 

His  ways  are  everlasting. — HAB.  iii,  3-6. 

"Let  the  naked  letter  be  insisted  on  in  such  passages — « 
and  why  not  if  in  the  other  ? — and  what  absurdity  would  be 
the  result  ?  We  do  not  say  that  poetry  of  neces-  Effect  of  lit- 

era!  interpre- 


sity  exaggerates  even  doctrinal  statements.     The     verses. 


tation  of  such 

verses. 

inspired  poetry  of  the  Bible  contains  much  doctrine,  clearly 
and  fairly  stated  in  the  best  and  most  impressive  forms.  But 
due  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  intensity  of  poetry  when 
describing  the  character  of  man  and  the  ways  and  attributes 
of  God." 

Dr.  Hibbard  remarks,   in   his  excellent  work  upon  the 
Psalms,  that  the  interpretation  of  the  poetry  of     TO  be  inter- 

preted         in 

the  Bible  is  less  dependent  on  verbal  criticism  KSf>fhe3feei. 
than  on  sympathy  with  the  feelings  of  the  author  psalmist. 
and  a  knowledge  of  his  circumstances.  "You  must  place 
yourself  in  his  condition,  adopt  his  sentiments,  and  be  floated 
onward  with  the  current  of  his  feelings,  soothed  by  his 
consolations,  or  agitated  by  the  storm  of  his  emotions.  Your 
attention  is  less  directed  to  words  than  to  things.  The 


182  THE   WOKD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

meaning  of  the  author  is  to  be  determined  less  by  an  appea 
to  the  niceties  of  philology  than  by  the  general  scope." 

The  poetry  of  the  Bible  has  been  divided  into  the  poetry 
TWO  forms  of  °^  ^e  affecti°ns  and  the  poetry  of  the  irnagina- 
agination  and  tion.  Of  the  former  we  have  the  Psalms,  the 

of  the  aftec- 

Song  of  Solomon,  and  the  Lamentations  of  Jere- 
miah, with  detached  passages  here  and  there  from  the 
prophets.  The  poetry  of  the  imagination  is  to  be  found  in 
the  book  of  Job,  but  especially  in  the  prophetical  writings. 
"  They  may  be  regarded  as  inspired  epics,  whose  theme  is 
the  advent  and  triumph  of  a  great  Deliverer,  whose  glories, 
one  after  another,  burst  upon  the  eye  of  the  prophet  through, 
the  haze  which  envelopes  the  future." 10 

In  the  Psalms  every  human  affection  finds  an  inspired 
interpreted  expression,  and  they  should  be  interpreted  in 

in  view   of 

acteristicT"  view  of  this  their  main  characteristic.  "  As  every 
hue  of  the  setting  sun  is  reflected  in  the  mirror  of  a  glassy 
lake,  so  in  the  Psalms  is  reflected  every  phase  of  spiritual 
feeling,  from  the  deepest  humiliation  under  a  sense  of  sin  to 
the  most  triumphant  rejoicing  in  the  conquest  of  sin  and 
death  by  a  crucified  and  risen  Messiah.  Hope,  fear,  trust, 
sorrow,  love  of  God,  and  hatred  of  evil,  the  plaintive  mourn- 
ing of  the  dove,  the  roar  of  inner  disquietude,  the  voice  of 
joy  and  praise,  alternate  in  these  holy  songs,  and  furnish 
expressions  and  stimulants  for  every  mood  of  mind."  n 
A  knowledge  The  most  important  external  aid  for  the  right 

of  the  circum- 

the?r  ecompof-     understanding  of  the  Psalms  is  a  knowledge  of 

eition   valua- 
ble, the  circumstances  under  which  they  were  corn« 

"Ibid, 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED.  183 

posed.  What  an  additional  interest  it  gives  to  the  noble 
"  Song  of  Moses  "  commencing,  "  I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord,  for 
lie  hath  triumphed  gloriously,"  to  recollect  that  it  was  sung 
upon  the  banks  of  the  Red  Sea  after  Israel  had  passed  through 
it  upon  dry  land,  and  the  hosts  of  the  Egyptians  were  buried 
in  the  returning  waves.  Dr.  Townsend  has  performed  a  fine 
service  in  his  excellent  Arrangement  of  the  Bible  (a  work  that 
ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every  interpreter  of  Dr.  Town- 

J  send's    Ar- 

the  Bible)  in  introducing  the  Psalms  into  the  his-  ofST* 
torical  Scriptures  at  the  period  they  are  supposed  to  have 
been  written.  The  events  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish  nation 
form  an  admirable  "  setting,"  in  which  these  songs  of  praise, 
or  "songs  in  the  night,"  appear  in  their  best  light.  Dr. 
Hibbard,  in  his  work  upon  the  Psalms,  has,  with  great 
assiduity,  arranged  the  psalms  in  the  order  of  their  chronol- 
ogy, and  preceded  them  with  appropriate  references  to  con- 
temporaneous events. 

Stanley,  in  his  account  of  the  reign  of  David,  introduces 

with  happy  effect  the  psalms  that  marked  the  different  eras 

• 
in  the  life  and  experience  of  the  king.     We  can  only  select, 

from  pages  of  great  interest,  the  account  of  Ark  brou^ht 
the  bringing  of  the  ark  of  God  into  Jerusalem,  saiem  asiiius- 

trated         by 

The  event  is  related  simply  in  2  Sam.  vi,  2,  18:  stanley- 
"  David  arose,  and  went  with  all  the  people  that  were  with 
him  from  Baale  of  Judah,  to  bring  up  from  thence  the  ark  of 
God,  whose  name  is  called  by  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts 
that  dwelfeth  between  the  cherubim;"  and  "he  blesses > 
the  people  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts."  "Thi 
psalms  which  directly  and  indirectly  spring  out  of  this 


184  THE  WORD    OF    GOD  OPENED. 

event12  reveal  a  deeper  meaning  than  the  mere  outwarJ 
ritual.  It  was  felt  to  be  the  turning-point  in  the  history  of 
the  nation.  Accordingly,  as  the  ark  stood  beneath  the  walls 
of  the  ancient  Jewish  fortress,  so  venerable  with  unconquered 
age,  the  summons  goes  up  from  the  procession  to  the  dark 
walls  in  front :  ;  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates !  and  be  ye 
lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors  !  and  the  King  of  glory  shall 
come  in.'  The  ancient  everlasting  gates  of  Jebus  are  called 
to  lift  up  their  heads — their  portcullis  grates — stiff  with  the 
rust  of  ages.  They  are  to  grow  and  rise  with  the  freshness 
of  youth,  that  their  height  may  be  worthy  to  receive  the  new 
King  of  glory.  That  glory,  which  fled  when  the  ark  was  taken, 
and  when  the  dying  mother  exclaimed  over  her  new-born 
son,  'Ichabod  !' 13  was  now  returning.  From  the  lofty  towers 
the  warders  cry,  *  Who  is  this  King  of  glory  ?'  The  old 
heathen  gates  will  not  at  once  recognize  this  new-comer. 
The  answer  comes  back,  as  if  to  prove  by  the  victories 
of  David  the  right  of  the  name  to  Him  who  now  comes  to 
his  own  again, '  Jehovah,  the  Lord,  the  mighty  One,  Jehovah, 
mighty  in  battle  1 '  and  again  by  this  proud  title  admission 
is  claimed :  '  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates !  and  be  ye 
lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors !  and  the  King  of  glory  shall 
come  in.'  Once  more  the  guardians  of  the  gates  reply,  '  Who 
is  the  King  of  glory  ?'  And  the  answer  comes  back :  '  Jeho- 
vah Sabaoth,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  he  is  the  King  of  glory  I ' 
This  is  the  solemn  inauguration  of  that  great  Name  by  which 
the  divine  nature  was  especially  known  under  the  monarchy. 
It  was,  indeed,  as  the  sixty-eighth  psalm  describes  it,  a 

**  Psalms  xr,  xxiv,  xxix,  xxx,  Ixriii,  cxxxii,  and  cxli.       1S 1  Sam.  iv,  21, 2& 


THE  WOKD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  185 

sncond  exoius.  David  was  on  that  day  the  founder,  not  of 
freedom  only,  but  of  empire ;  not  of  religion  only,  but  of  a 
Church  and  commonwealth.  But  there  were  revelations  of  a 
yet  loftier  kind  even  than  this  new  name  of  the  leader  of  the 
armies  of  Israel.  The  name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  as  revealed 
in  the  close  of  the  twenty-fourth  psalm,  was  destined  itself  to 
fade  away  into  a  dark  silence  when  the  hosts  had  ceased  to 
fight  and  the  empire  of  Israel  had  fallen  to  pieces.  But  in 
the  hopes  with  which  that  same  psalm  is  opened,  and  which 
pervades  the  fifteenth  and  the  one  hundred  and  first,  the 
faith  of  David  takes  a  higher  and  still  wider  sweep.  As  if 
in  answer  to  the  cry  from  the  guardians  of  the  gates,  as  he 
remembers  the  tabernacle  which  he  had  raised  within  the 
walls  of  his  city  to  receive  the  ark  after  its  long  wanderings, 
as  he  sees  its  magnificent  train  mounting  up  to  its  sacred 
tent  on  the  sacred  rock,  the  thought  rises  within  him  of  those 
who  shall  hereafter  be  the  citizens  of  the  capital  thus  con- 
secrated, and  he  asks,  '  Who  shall  ascend  into  the  mount  of 
Jehovah  ?  Who  shall  stand  in  his  holy  place  ?  Who  shall 
abide  in  thy  tabernacle  ?  Who  shall  abide  in  thy  holy  tent  ? ' 
The  question  is  twice  asked,  the  reply  is  twice  given :  *  He 
that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart ;  who  hath  not  lifted 
up  his  soul  unto  vanity,  nor  sworn  to  deceive  his  neighbor. 
He  that  walketh  uprightly,  and  worketh  righteousness,  and 
speaketh  the  truth  from  his  heart.  He  that  backbiteth  not 
with  his  tongue,  nor  doeth  evil  to  his  neighbor,  nor  taketh 
up  a  reproach  against  his  neighbor.  He  that  despiseth  a 
vile  person,  but  honoreth  them  that  fear  Jehovah.  He  that 
sweareth  to  his  own  hurt  and  changeth  not.  He  that  put 


186  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

teth  not  out  his  money  unto  usury,  nor  taketh  a  reward 
against  the  innocent.  He  that  doeth  these  things  shall 
never  fall.' 14  Of  these  tests  for  the  entrance  into  David's 
city  and  David's  Church  one  only  has  become  obsolete,  that 
of  not  receiving  usury.  All  the  rest  remain  in  force  still — 
nay,  it  may  even  be  said  that  the  one  qualification,  repeated 
in  so  many  forms,  of  the  duty  of  truth,  even  in  Christian 
times,  has  hardly  been  recognized  with  equal  force  as  hold- 
ing the  exalted  place  which  David  gives  it.  When  at  length 
the  day  is  past,  and  he  finds  himself  in  his  own  palace,  he 
there  lays  down  for  himself  the  rules  by  which  { he  will 
walk  in  his  house  with  a  perfect  heart.'  The  one  hundred 
and  first  psalm  was  one  beloved  by  the  noblest  of  Russian 
princes,  Vladimir  Monomachos ;  by  the  gentlest  of  English 
reformers,  Nicholas  Ridley.  But  it  was  its  first  leap  into  life 
that  has  carried  it  so  far  into  the  future.  It  is  full  of  a  stern 
exclusiveness,  of  a  noble  intolerance.  But  not  against  theo- 
logical error,  not  against  uncourtly  manners,  not  against 
political  insubordination,  but  against  the  proud  heart,  the 
high  look,  the  secret  slanderer,  the  deceitful  worker,  the 
teller  of  lies.  These  are  the  outlaws  from  King  David's 
court,  these  alone  are  the  rebels  and  heretics  whom  he  would 
not  suffer  to  dwell  in  his  house,  or  tarry  in  his  sight :  i  Mine 
eyes  shall  be  upon  the  faithful  of  the  land,  that  they  may 
dwell  with  me ;  he  that  walketh  in  a  perfect  way  he  shall  be 
my  servant.  I  will  early  destroy  all  the  wicked  of  the  land, 
that  I  may  cut  off  all  wicked  doers  from  the  city  of  the 
Lord.'15  Many  have  been  the  holy  associations  with  which 
1 4  Psalms  xv,  xxii.  1 8  Psalm  ci,  6-8. 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED.  187 

the  name  of  Jerusalem  has  been  invested  in  apocalyptic 
vision  and  Christian  hymns,  but  they  have  their  first  his- 
torical ground  in  the  sublime  aspirations  of  its  first  royal 
founder."  16 

This  most  interesting  historical  illustration  of  one  series 
of  the  Psalms,  from  Stanley's  very  instructive  History  of  the 
Jewish  Church,  shows  how  much  light  can  be  poured  upon 
them,  and  how  much  beauty  and  force  added  to  them,  by  a 
careful  gathering  of  the  incidents  which  formed  the  first 
occasions  of  their  utterance. 

A  marked  peculiarity  of  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  is  a  law 
which  seems  to  pervade  the  whole  of  it,  and  is 

Parallelism  of 

denominated  parallelism,  an  understanding  of  Psalms< 
which  will  afford  great  aid  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
metrical  portions  of  Scripture.  By  parallelism  is  meant  the 
correspondence  which  one  line,  or  a  part  of  a  verse,  bears  to 
another.  The  first  line  will  commonly  contain  a  distinct 
idea  or  proposition.  The  second  will  present  the  same  idea, 
either  more  direct  and  literal,  or  else  more  obscure  and  enig- 
matical, or  perhaps  with  some  enlargement.  Sometimes  the 
law  of  contrast  will  obtain,  and  the  second  or  parallel  line 
will  be  the  opposite  of  the  idea  contained  in  the  first.  In 
either  case  it  will  be  seen  that  it  becomes,  as  it  is  intended  to 
be,  explanatory  of  the  other.17 

Bishop  Lowth  presents  three  forms  of  parallelism.  I.  The 
first  he  styles  synonymous,  and  it  embraces  those  First  form: 

synonymous 

lines  that  correspond  one  to  another  by  expressing    parallelism. 

19  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,  Second  Series,  pages  95-9S. 
*T  Hibbard  on  the  Paalms,  page  53. 


188  THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED. 

the  same  sense  in  different,  but  equivalent  terms;   as,  for 
illustration : 

Because  I  called  and  ye  refused  ; 

I  stretched  out  my  hand  and  no  one  regarded ; 

But  ye  have  defeated  all  my  counsel, 

And  would  not  incline  to  my  reproof: 

I  also  will  laugh  at  your  calamity ; 

I  will  mock  when  your  fear  cometh. — PKOV.  i,  24-26. 

Seek  ye  Jehovah  while  he  may  be  found ; 

Call  ye  upon  him  while  he  is  near : 

Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 

And  the  unrighteous  man  his  thought; 

And  let  him  turn  to  Jehovah,  and  he  will  compassionate  him; 

And  unto  our  God,  for  he  aboundeth  in  forgiveness.18 — ISA.  Iv,  6,  7. 

In  these  selections  it  will  be  seen  that  the  thought  of  the 
first  line  is  repeated  with  some  variations  in  the  second,  and 
Sometimes  that  of  the  third  in  the  fourth,  etc.  Sometimes 

consists    of 

four  lines.      the  parallel  consists  of  four  lines,  the  last  two 
answering  to  the  first  two,  and  making  one  verse  : 

Be  not  moved  with  indignation  against  the  evil  doers; 

Neither  be  jealous  at  the  workers  of  iniquity : 

For  like  the  grass  they  shall  soon  be  cut  off; 

And  like  the  green  herb  they  shall  wither.— P§A.  xxxvii,  1,  2. 

The  ox  knoweth  his  owner, 

And  the  ass  the  crib  of  his  lord ; 

But  Israel  doth  not  know ; 

My  people  doth  not  consider. — ISA.  1,  8. 

This  order  is  varied  so  that  four  lines  will  be  followed  by 
their  four  corresponding  strains,  and  at  other 

Eight  lines. 

times  the  third  line  will  respond  to  the  first, 
and  the  fourth  to  the  second. 

18  Bishop  Lowth's  translation. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD   OPENED.  189 

As  the  heavens  are  high  above  the  earth, 
So  high  is  his  goodness  over  them  that  fear  him ; 
As  remote  as  the  east  is  from  the  west, 
So  far  hath  he  removed  from  us  our  transgressions.— PSA.  ciii,  11, 12. 

IE.  The  second  kind  of  parallels  he  calls  antithetic.    These 
are  the  verses  in  which  the  two  lines  oppose 

Second  form : 

each  other  by  a  contrast  of  sentiments,  as, 

A  wise  son  rejoiceth  his  father, 

But  a  foolish  son  is  the  grief  of  his  mother. — PBOV.  x,  1. 

Dr.  Hibbard  remarks  that  there  is  no  one  rule  for  the 
interpretation  of  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon  of  more 

Peculiar  to 

importance  and  universal  application  than  this  law     Proverbs- 
of  parallelism.    In  many  instances  this  rule  of  antithetic  cor- 
respondence is  the  chief  and  only  safe  reliance  of  the  expos- 
itor.    Illustrations  of  this  are  to  be  found  also  in  the  Psalms. 

Some  in  chariots  and  some  in  horses,  (do  trust ;) 

But  we  make  mention  of  the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God. 

They  are  brought  down  and  fallen ; 

But  we  are  risen  and  stand  upright. — PSA.  xx,  7,  8. 

III.  The  third  form  is  styled  synthetic.    It  is  where  the 

parallelism  consists  only  in  a  similarity  of  con- 
Third  form: 

struction ;  neither  the  words  nor  lines  answer  to  8ynthetlc- 
each  other,  but  there  is  a  correspondence  and  equality  be- 
tween the  different  propositions,  such  as  when  the  parts  of 
speech  answer  to  each  other,  a  negative  to  a  negative,  and  an 
interrogative  to  an  interrogative.  Bishop  Lowth  illustrates 
this  form  by  the  one  hundredth  and  forty-eighth  psalm  : 

Praise  ye  Jehovah,  ye  of  the  earth  I 
Ye  sea-monsters,  and  all  deeps 
Fire  and  hail,  snow  and  vapor ; 
Stormy  winds  executing  his  command; 


190  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Mountains  and  all  hills ; 

Fruit  trees  and  all  cedars ; 

"Wild  beasts  and  all  cattle ; 

Eeptiles  and  birds  of  wing ; 

Kings  of  the  earth  and  all  peoples ; 

Princes  and  all  judges  of  the  earth ; 

Youths  and  all  virgins ; 

Old  men,  together  with  the  children ; 

Let  them  praise  the  name  of  Jehovah ; 

For  his  name  alone  is  exalted ; 

His  majesty  above  earth  and  heaven. 

The  book  of  Job  consists  chiefly  of  this  form  of  parallelism. 

"With  Him  is  wisdom  and  might ; 

To  Him  belong  counsel  and  understanding. 

Lo !  he  pulleth  down,  and  it  shall  not  be  built; 

He  encloseth  a  man,  and  he  shall  not  be  set  loose. 

Lo !  he  withholdeth  the  waters,  and  they  are  dried  up ; 

And  he  sendeth  them  forth,  and  they  overturn  the  earth. 

With  him  is  strength  and  perfect  existence ; 

The  deceived  and  the  deceiver  are  his.— JOB  xii,  13-16. 

It  will  prove  a  pleasant  and  instructive  task  to  arrange  the 
poetical  portions  of  the  Bible  into  metrical  verses  under 
these  rules.  In  Townsend's  Arrangement  the  poetical  Scrip- 
tures are  presented  in  the  form  of  verse,  in  accordance  with 
the  translation  in  our  received  version. 

We  can  hardly  leave  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  without  a 
passing  reference  to  the  "  vindictive  psalms  "  as 

The     vindic-      L 

tive  psalms.  ^^  are  cane^  There  are,  as  it  is  well  known, 
portions  of  these  Scriptures  in  which  the  most  terrible  ven- 
geance is  denounced  upon  enemies,  extending  to  their  wives 
and  children,  even  down  into  the  coming  generations.  JNTo 
Christian  man  could  use  them  in  reference  to  personal  enemies 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  191 

without  transgressing  the  plainest  teachings  of  the  Bible, 
and  bringing  remorse  upon  his  conscience.  It  is  not  a  suffi- 
cient answer  to  say  that  these  were  the  expressions  of  a  dark 
rtt^e  and  a  less  merciful  dispensation,  for  in  the  Not  enough 

to    say    they 

game  book,  and  dropping  from  the  same  lips,  j^ l '™|Jjks  {jf 
are  to  be  found  the  sweetest,  tenderest,  most  for-  were  uttered7. 
giving,  and  charitable  sentiments ;  and  all  these  strains,  it 
inust  be  remembered,  are  inspired  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
are  still  profitable.  There  can  be  but  one  answer :  These  are 
not  the  expressions  of  personal  wrath  against  personal  foes. 

As  in  the  instance  of  the  awful  and  sweeping     Not    expres- 
sions of  per- 
destruction  of  human  life  by  the  children  of    sonai  wrath. 

Israel  when  they  entered  upon  the  possession  of  Canaan, 
there  can  be  found  no  justification  but  in  the  divine  com- 
mand. God  might  have  swept  away  a  frightfully-depraved 
and  sinful  people  by  a  pestilence,  but  this  would  have 
seemed  to  Israel  as  a  natural  event,  and  not  a  retributive 
Judgment ;  but  he  committed  the  work  into  their  hands, 
with  an  express  statement  of  the  reason  for  which  he  visited 
*liis  utter  destruction  upon  the  nations  of  Canaan;  that  they, 
unarmed  and  weak  as  they  were,  and  yet  easily,  by  God's 
help,  overthrowing  their  foes,  might  never  forget  the  ven- 
geance that  he  visited  upon  idolatry  and  impurity,  nor  the 
sure  defense  of  Him  who  moved  the  floods  aside  for  their 
passage  across  the  Jordan,  and  made  them  terrible  to  God's 
foes  and  their  own.  So  in"  these  psalms,  there  is  nothing  in 
the  sentiments  of  the  religious  men  of  the  Old  Testament 
dispensation,  or  in  the  prevailing  religious  expressions  of  the 
psalmists  themselves,  to  justify  the  opinion  that  they  be- 


192  THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

The  psalmists     lieved  it   right   to   curse   their  personal   foes. 

themselves 

fieve  4?fcrfeS  They  were  the  enemies  of  God  ^nd  of  his  king- 
to  curse  per-  .. 

Bonai  foes.         dom  whom  they  addressed. 

"Job  considered  it  a  great  sin  to  indulge  a  revengeful  spirit. 
'If  I  rejoiced  at  the  destruction  of  him  that  hated  me,  or 
lifted  up  myself  when  evil  found  him ;  neither  have  I  suf- 
fered my  mouth  to  sin  by  wishing  a  curse  to  his  soul.' 19 
The  law  of  Moses  expressly  commands  kindly  offices  to 
enemies.20  Solomon,  also,  says,  '  If  thine  enemy  be  hungry, 
give  him  bread  to  eat ;  and  if  he  be  thirsty,  give  him  water 
to  drink :  for  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  upon  his  head, 
and  the  Lord  shall  reward  thee.'21  'Rejoice  not  when  thine 
enemy  falleth,  and  let  not  thine  heart  be  glad  when  he  stum- 
bleth ;  lest  the  Lord  see  it,  and  it  displease  him,  and  he  turn 
away  his  wrath  from  him.  Say  not  I  will  do  so  to  him,  as 
he  hath  done  to  me  :  I  will  render  to  the  man  according  to 
his  work.' " 22  The  great  psalmist  especially,  as  his  treatment 
of  King  Saul  bore  witness,  was  an  amiable,  forgiving,  noble- 
hearted  man. 

These  vindictive  psalms  have  been  the  "  songs  in  the 
Have  been  night "  of  the  martyrs  in  all  generations.  They 

used    by   the 

aSIageated  °f  resounded  from  the  secluded  mountains  and  re- 
cesses of  Sotland,  from  the  secret  retreats  of  the  Hu- 
guenots of  France,  from  the  fastnesses  of  the  mountains  of 
Tyrol  and  the  Apennines,  and  from  Tabor  in  Bohemia. 
Huss,  Luther,  and  the  long-suffering  of  every  age  have 
chanted  these  solemn  and  inspiring  strains  ol  triumph 

«  Job  xxxi,  29,  30.         ao  Exod.  xxiii,  4,  5. 

»»  Prov.  xxv,  21,  22.       «  Prov.  xxiv,  IT,  18, 29 :  see  Hibbard  on  the  Psalms. 


THE   WORD    OF  GOD  OPENED.  193 

against,  not  their  own  foes,  but  the  enemies  of  God  and  of  his 
Church.     It  is  the  same  fearful  language  which     Christ    used 

such         lan- 

the  "  Lamb  of  God,"  when  upon  earth,  who  re-  eua&e- 
ceived  sinners  and  ate  with  them,  who  came  to  seek  and  to 
save  the  lost,  who  died  with  a  prayer  for  his  murderers 
upon  his  lips,  used  when  addressing  the  proud,  incorrigible 
foes  of  God.  These  psalms  set  forth  in  divinely-guarded 
language  God's  abhorrence  of  wickedness,  and  the  fearful 
judgments  he  will  visit  upon  those  who  persist  in  it. 

In  an  elaborate  article  in  the  "Bibliotheca  Sacra,"  for 
January,  1862,  Professor  Park  treats  the  subject  of  the  im- 
precatory psalms  in  an  exhaustive  manner.  In  Prof.  Park  on 

the  impreca- 

the  opening  of  his  paper,  as  it  was  written  during  t°ry  psalms. 
the  civil  war,  he  naturally  alludes  to  the  passing  events  fill- 
ing the  thoughts  and  anxieties  of  the  land,  and  remarks  that 
there  are  crises  in  human  life  which  bring  out  the  hidden 
uses  of  such  parts  of  the  Bible  as  seem  long  ago  to  have 
been  rendered  valueless  through  the  brighter  light  of  a  later 
dispensation.  During  the  war,  he  says,  "the  imprecatory 
psalms  have  gained  a  new  meaning  in  the  view  of  men  who 
have  been  wont  to  regard  them  as  unchristian.  The  kt0  ^ 
Now  the  red  planet,  Mars,  which  had  been  un.  £  ^Tete 
noticed  in  our  horizon,  has  reappeared ;  the  lost 
hymns  have  been  found  again.  It  is  a  new  proof  of  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible,  that  so  many  of  its  forgotten  teach- 
ings have  been  commended  to  'our  regard  by  the  martial 
scenes  of  the  day."  References  to  these  terrible  utterances 
of  holy  writ  demand  that  the  one  who  utters  them  shall 

feel  the  tenderest  pity  for  the  suffering  as  well  as  a  right- 
13 


194  THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

eous  indignation  against  wrong-doing.  Unless  our  sympa- 
thies be  aroused  for  the  bleeding  Protestants,  we  revolt  from 
the  sonnet  of  Milton  '  on  the  late  massacre  in  Piedmont :  > 

'  Avenge,  O  Lord,  thy  slaughtered  saints,  whose  bones 

Lie  scattered  on  the  Alpine  mountains  cold ; 

Ev'n  them  who  kept  thy  truth  so  pure  of  old, 
When  all  our  fathers  worshipped  stocks  and  stones. 
Far  get  not  I ' 

Dr.  J.  J.  Stewart  Perowne,  in  his  admirable  work  upon 
the  Psalms,  while  affirming  the  impersonal  and  right- 
Perowne's  eous  indignation  expressed  in  the  imprecations 

view  of  these 

psalms.  found  in  the  Psalms,  regards  the  spirit  of  them  as 

unjustified  in  the  New  Testament  dispensation.  "  Surely," 
he  says,  "there  is  nothing  in  such  an  explanation  which, 
in  the  smallest  degree,  impugns  the  divine  authority  of  the 
earlier  Scriptures.  In  how  many  respects  have  the  harsher 
outlines  of  the  legal  economy  been  softened  down  by  the 
'mind  that  was  in  Jesus  Christ.'  How  much  is  declared  to 
be  antiquated,  even  though  it  still  stands  for  our  instruction 
in  the  volume  of  the  Bible.  How  clearly  our  Lord  himself 
teaches  us  that  his  spirit  and  the  spirit  of  Elijah  are  not 
the  same.  Yet  surely  no  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament 
occupies  a  higher  place  as  an  inspired  messenger  of  God 
than  the  prophet  Elijah.  Our  Lord  does  not  condemn  the 
prophet  for  his  righteous  zeal ;  he  does  forbid  the  manifes- 
tation of  a  like  zeal  on  the  part  of  his  disciples.  As  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  he  substitutes  the  moral  principle 
for  the  legal  enactment,  so  here  he  s-ubstitutes  the  spirit  of 
gentleness,  meekness,  endurance  of  wrong,  for  the  spirit  of 
fiery  though  righteous  indignation. " 


THE   WOKD   OF   GOD   OPENED.  195 

"An  insulated  imprecation  repels  men  who  will  be  recon- 
ciled to  it  when  they  enter  into  such  reasons  for  it  as  are 
intimated  in  Psa.  ix,  13-20 ;  x,  2 ;  liv,  3." 23 

The  books  of  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes  form  the  great 
divine  repositories  of  inspired  moral  ^maxims. 

Proverbs  and 

The  histories  and  biographies  of  the  Bible,  as 
we  have  said  in  another  place,  do  not  give  expression  to  the 
divine  abhorrence  of  wrong-doing  in  the  instance  of  those 
whose  acts  are  recorded ;  but  in  these  books,  in  the  most 
striking  and  pungent  manner,  and  in  a  form,  to  cling  to  the 
memory,  as  well  as  to  impress  the  imagination,  the  judgment 
of  God  against  every  form  of  deceit  and  impurity  is  given. 
They  are  rendered  even  more  impressive  as  being  the  results 
of  human  experience ;  coming  from  the  lips  of  the  wisest, 
richest,  most  powerful,  and  most  tempted  of  kings.  It  is  to 
be  feared  that  in  modern  days  these  consummate  lessons  of 
wisdom  for  the  guidance  and  defense,  especially  of  youth,  do 
not  receive  the  attention  they  should. 

We  have  already  intimated  the  light  that  a  knowledge  of 
the  oriental  espousal  and  marriage  customs  will 

Solomon's 

shed  upon  that  most  incomprehensible,  to  many, 
of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  Solomon's  Song.  Isaac  Taylor 
happily  remarks  that  this  song  of  pure  conjugal  love  carries 
us  back  to  Eden.  In  its  pure  and  virgin  arbors  the  king, 
turning  away  from  the  impure  atmosphere  of  a  fallen  world, 
finds  his  subjects  and  his  images.  This  poem  would  be 
entirely  true  to  nature  if  man  only  were  innocent,  and  woman 
always  pure  and  loving.  "  If,"  says  the  well-known  author 
33  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  xix,  p.  207. 


196  THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED. 

of  the  History  of  Enthusiasm,  to  whom  we  have  alluded,  "  a 
half  dozen  heedlessly  rendered  passages  of  our  English  ver- 
sion were  amended,  as   easily  they  might  be. 

A  few  emen- 

?eaxt°ns  would     then  the  canticle  would  well  consist  throughout 

make  it  per- 
fect in  its  ex-     with  the  purest  utterances  of  coniugal  fondness. 

pression       of 

Happy  would  any  people  be  among  whom  there 
was  an  abounding  of  that  conjugal  fondness  which  might 
thus  express  itself."  It  is  not  as  an  expression  of  pure 
and  innocent  love  merely  that  it  finds  its  place  in  the  canon, 
has  held  it  persistently  against  many  efforts  to  unseat  it,  and 
has  been  found  to  be  a  medium  of  expression  among  the 
Prized  for  its  holiest  of  the  saints  of  earth,  but  as  the  in- 

expression  of 

spiritual  life,  spired  illustration  of  the  deepest  and  sincerest 
emotions  of  their  spiritual  life.  It  is  to  be  interpreted  in 
all  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  an  early,  well  assorted, 
divinely  instituted  marriage,  while  under  its  folds  of 
human  love  lays  embalmed  the  divine  symbol  of  Christ's 
relation  to  his  Church  and  to  the  individual  soul  that 
pants  for  him.  In  this  use  of  it  "it  has  served  to  give 
animation  and  intensity,  and  warrant,  too,  to  the  devout 
meditations  of  thousands  of  the  most  holy,  and  of  the 

Isaac  Taylor's    purest  minds.     Those  who  have  no   conscious- 
view   of    the 
book.  ness  of  this  kind,  and  whose  feelings  and  notions 

are  all  cof  the  earth — earthy,'  will  not  fail  to  find  in  this 
book  that  which  will  suit  them  for  purposes  sometimes  of 
mockery,  sometimes  of  luxury,  sometimes  of  disbelief.  Quite 
unconscious  of  these  perversions,  and  happily  ignorant  of 
them,  and  unable  to  suppose  them  possible,  there  have  been 
multitudes  of  unearthly  spirits  to  whom  this  —  the  most 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  197 

beautiful  of  pastorals — has  been  not  indeed  a  beautiful  pas- 
toral, but  the  choicest  of  those  words  of  truth  which  are 
*  sweeter  than  honey  to  the  taste,'  and  t  rather  to  be  chosen 
than  thousands  of  gold  and  silver.' " 24 

PROPHECY. 

The   Bible   is   full   of  prophecy   fulfilled   or    unfulfilled. 
Its  histories   are  the  records  of  the  fulfillment 

Prophecy. 

of  previous    prophecies,    and    the    New    Testa- 
ment is  the  complement  of  the  Old,  in  which  its  prophetic 
types  and  words  are  shown  to  have  been  fully  met  in  the 
person  of  Christ,  and  the  Gospel  which  he  established.  . 

It  not  unfrequently  occurs,  however,  in  the  New  Testament, 
that  an  incident  recorded  in  the  Old,  which  in 

Illustrative 

some  measure  is  repeated  in  the  times  of  Christ,     events- 
is  said  to  be  fulfilled.     "  Any  thing,"  says  Dr.  Bloomfield, 
"  may  be  said  to  be  fulfilled  if  it  admits  of  being  appropri- 
ately applied."    Thus  in  the  second  chapter  of  Matthew    /e 
read,  "  Then  was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken 

Weeping     of 

by  Jeremy  the  prophet,  saying,  In  Rama  was  Rachel- 
there  a  voice  heard,  lamentation  and  weeping,  and  great 
mourning,  Rachel  weeping  for  her  children,  and  would  not 
be  comforted  because  they  are  not."  In  the  prophetic  vision 
of  the  weeping  seer,25  the  beloved  wife  of  Jacob,  the  mother 
of  Israel,  by  a  striking  figure  is  represented  as  rising  from  her 
grave  and  weeping  over  the  slain  of  her  children — slain 
in  the  invasions  of  their  country  by  the  foes  whom  God  per- 
mitted to  scourge  them ;  so  in  the  times  of  the  infant 
84  The  Spirit  of  the  Hebrew  Poetry,  page  233.  "  Jer.  xxxi,  15. 


198  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

Bedeemer,  when  Herod's  sword  was  reeking  with  the  blood  of 

the  children  of  Judea,  slain  around  the  very  grave  of  Rachel, 

near  Bethlehem,  this  sad  mother  is  said  to  rise  and  weep 

again,  and  the  vision  of  the  prophet  is  once  more  realized. 

The  quotation  in  the  fifteenth  verse  of  the  same  chapter  of 

,    Matthew  is  another  instance  of  the  same  form 

Calling  out  of 

of  fulfillment,  or  renewed  realization :  "  That  it 
might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord  by  the 
prophet,  Out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my  son."  The  depart- 
ure of  Israel  from  Egypt  under  Moses,  of  which  Hosea 
speaks,26  was  not  a  direct  prophecy  nor  type  of  our  Redeem- 
er's brief  residence  in  that  country,  but  a  coincident  fact, 
fiill  of  profitable  and  grateful  suggestion,  and  illustrating 
our  Lord's  departure  from  the  Holy  Land  and  return  to  it. 

Fulfilled  prophecy  is  best  interpreted  by  history.     The 
History  inter-     records  of  Jewish,  Assyrian,  Persian,   Grecian, 

prets  fulfilled 

prophecy.  Roman,  and  modern  history,  and  the  ruins  and 
desolations  of  many  countries  like  Palestine  and  Egypt,  and 
cities  like  Tyre  and  Babylon,  afford  the  best  means  for  a  correct 
interpretation  of  the  inspired  visions  which  it  pleased  God  to 
bestow  upon  the  ancient  seers,  and  which  have  been  signally 
fulfilled.  The  prophet  himself  evidently  did  not  always 
understand  the  force  of  the  words  or  the  symbols  which  he 
used.27  The  idea  of  exact  time  was  not  in  the 

Prophet  t    no 

idea  of  time,  prophet's  mind,  for  the  commencement  of  Mes- 
siah's reign  upon  earth  and  the  glorious  universal  triumph 
of  the  Gospel  are  announced  in  the  same  passages.  It  was 
partly  for  this  reason  that  the  Jewish  interpreter,  eagerly 
«  Hosea  xii,  13.  27 1  Peter  i,  10, 11. 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.        199 

seizing  upon  the  triumphs  of  the  promised  royal  seed  of 
David  as  connected  with  the  advent  of  Messiah,  overlooked 
the  humiliation  and  suffering  which  he  must  first  undergo. 
That  manifestation  of  the  Son  of  David  is  yet,  after  nineteen 
hundred  years,  an  object  of  faith  and  not  of  sight. 

It  is  evident  that  prophesy  is  not  given  in  terms  so  definite 
as  to  be  readily  understood,  except  as  to  its  general  scope. 
There  is  not  a  more  definite  prophecy  than  Daniel's  as  to  the 
time  of  the  coming  of  the  Messiah;  yet  our  Lord,  when  justi- 
fying to  his  forerunner  his  claim  to  the  exalted  character  of 
Him  "  that  was  to  come,"  appealed  not  to  Dan-  Jesus  did  not 

appeal  to  the 

iel's  symbolical  beasts,  or  to  his  mysterious  fig-  DaS 
ures,  but  to  the  miracles  of  mercy,  lying  here  and  there 
upon  the  bosom  of  prophecy,  which  he  was  then  fulfilling. 
Christ's  own  prophecies  and  those  of  the  book  of  Revela- 
tion are  of  the  same  nature.  They  point  out  a  future  with 
a  dark,  heavy,  crimson  foreground,  but  with  a  golden  and 
glorious  distant  horizon.  The  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and 
the  final  successive  subsidence,  in  connection  prophecies  of 

the  New  Tes- 

with  much  human  sorrow  and  Christian  disci-  tanient. 
pline,  of  other  earthly  kingdoms,  down  to  the  hour  of  the  fall 
of  the  last  foe  and  the  sublime  installation  of  Christ's  uni- 
versal kingdom,  amid  the  halleluiahs  of  angels  and  re- 
deemed men,  are  set  forth  in  natural  and  somewhat  mys- 
terious symbols  in  the  last  discourses  of  our  Lord  and  the 
prophecies  of  John  the  Evangelist. 

Prophecy  was  not  intended  to  be  history,  but  an  index  or 
gnomon  pointing  in  the  direction  of  the  Divine 

Prophecy  not 

Providence.     It  was  intended,  by  the  assurance     blstory- 


200  THE   WOED   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

it  affords  when  its  terms  are  fulfilled  by  the  occurrence  of 
events,  to  establish  the  faith  of  God's  people  as  to  his  con- 
trol of  human  affairs,  as  to  the  inspiration  of  his  word,  as  to 
his  abundant  power  to  make  even  the  wrath  of  man  praise  him, 
Points  to  the  and  also  to  give  courage  and  comfort  to  the  peo- 

triumph      of 

£uth9.tian  pie  of  God  in  reference  to  the  future.  However 
discouraging  the  condition  of  the  Church  at  any  given  period, 
and  however  arrogant  and  numerous  her  foes,  the  servants  of 
the  most  high  God  have  a  "  sure  word  of  prophecy  "  shining 
like  a  bright  light  upon  a  dark  future,  and  giving  them  abso- 
lute assurance  of  the  final  triumph  of  Christian  truth. 

The  sad  mistakes  to  which  we  have  heretofore  alluded, 
arising  out  of  a  too  confident  reliance  upon  a  literal  render- 
ing of  prophetic  symbols — the  absolute  errors  into  which 
learned  and  good  men  have  fallen  when  apparently  resting 
upon  the  exact  demonstrations  of  scriptural  figures — should 
The  hour  of  teach  us  the  truth  of  the  saying  of  our  Lord,  that 

Christ's  corn- 

veiled.01  re~  while  his  coming  will  certainly  be  experienced, 
with  all  its  attendant  circumstances,  the  specific  hour  has  not 
been  revealed.28  It  seems  to  have  been  the  intention  of  the 

a*  Matt,  xxiv,  36.  "  But  the  key,"  says  Dr.  Whedon  in  his  supplementary 
note  to  his  comments  upon  the  twenty- fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  "  to  the  whole 
mystery  (in  reference  to  the  time  of  Christ's  second  coming)  is  furnished  in 
2  Peter  iii,  8,  where,  in  regard  to  this  very  point,  Peter  reminds  us  that  '  one 
day  with  the  Lord  is  as  a  thousand  years.1  (Not  that  a  day  in  prophecy,  as  some 
teach,  is  an  exact  symbol  of  a  thousand  years,  but  that  time  is  without  human 
measure  in  God's  mind.)  Scoffers  in  the  last  days,  he  tells  us,  would  raise  this 
very  objection : 4  Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming  ? '  Peter  replies  by  inform- 
ing us  that  the  distance  of  the  event  is  to  be  measured  by  the  arithmetic  of  God. 
One  day  is  as  a  thousand  years,  and  language  that  would  seem  to  intimate  a 
few  days  may  really  embrace  afew  thousands  or  myriads  of  years.  If  it  be 
true  that  both  Christ  and  his  apostles  have  warned  us  that  the  time  of  the  second 


a 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED.  201 

Holy  Spirit  that  in  all  ages,  even  the  apostolical,  the  Church 

» 
should  be  looking  for  and  loving  the  appearing  of  the  Son 

of  God,  and  purifying  herself  in  the  expectation  of  it.  "  Only 
a  few  years  ago,"  says  Dobie,  "  the  year  and  the  day  were 
confidently  fixed  when  the  trumpet  should  sound  and  the 
voice  of  the  Son  of  God  be  heard  calling  the  world  to  judg- 
ment. It  is  only  as  yesterday  that  the  eloquent  Irving,  with 
saintly  and  joyous  countenance,  was  wont  to  stand  for  hours 
together  on  his  balcony,  looking  toward  the  east,  Trving  on  the 

Doming       of 

momentarily  expecting  to  see  the  glorious  white  Christ. 
throne,  and  the  retinue  of  attending  angels,  and  the  ever- 
blessed  Redeemer  coining  in  the  glory  of  the  Father  to  judge 
the  living  and  the  dead.  And  now  another  prophet  has  risen 
up,  and  by  him  we  are  confidently  assured  from  a  devout  and 
prayerful  study  of  the  prophets  that  the  second  coining  of 
Christ  and  the  end  of  the  present  system  will  probably  take 
place  in  1865.  (The  writer  refers  to  the  eloquent 

Dr.  (Jumming, 

Dr.  Gumming,  of  London,  whose  date  has  now  llkewise- 
been  passed  some  three  years ;  but,  not  discouraged,  he  still 
fixes  it  again  in  the  near  future.)  The  data  of  this  and  all 
other  similar  calculations  are  found  in  Dan.  xii,  11,  com- 
pared with  Rev.  xii,  5 ;  xiii,  18 ;  and  xx,  4.  But  by  a 
cursory  inspection  of  these  passages  it  will  be  seen  that  any 
calculation  of  the  year  when  this  world  shall  end  must  be 
very,  if  not  purely,  arbitrary,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  direct 

advent  was  to  them'  unrevealed  and  unknown— if  they  use  in  abundance 
terms  indicating  an  indefinite  distance— if  they  themselves  furnish  the  solution 
of  all  their  expressions  intimating  its  near  proximity— al]  objections  to  their  in- 
fallibility in  regard  to  other  subjects  upon  which  they  speak  with  professed 
Inspiration  are  nugatory  and  captious." 


202  THE   WORD    OF   GOD   OPENED. 

reference  to  that  event  in  these  passages  whatever.  All  that 
the  Bible  justifies  us  in  believing  respecting  the 
termination  of  the  present  world  is,  that  there 
is  a  certain  grand  result  to  be  reached  in  the  histoiy  of  our 
race,  a  general  dispersion  of  the  ignorance  of  men  and  a 
triumph  over  the  wickedness  that  reigns  in  the  earth ;  and 
that  after  an  extended  period  of  peace  and  holiness,  very 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly  the  angel  of  God  will  summon 
both  the  living  and  the  dead  to  judgment.  Then  will  come 
the  end,  the  dissolution  of  the  present  system  in  liquid  fire, 
and  the  final  retribution  of  the  last  day,  dispensed  in  right- 
eousness by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."29  This  may,  and  may 

29  Key  to  the  Bible,  pages  202,  203.  "  The  Bible,"  says  Bernard,  "  is  one 
long  account  of  the  preparation  of  the  city  of  God.  That  is  one  distinct  point 
of  view  from  which  the  Bible  ought  to  be  regarded,  and  one  from  which  its 
contents  will  appear  in  clearer  light.  We  are  accustomed  in  the  present  day  to 
read  it  too  exclusively  from  the  individual  point  of  view,  as  the  record  for  each 
man  of  that  will  of  God  and  that  way  of  salvation  with  which  he  is  personally 
concerned.  This  it  is,  but  it  is  more  than  this.  It  places  before  us  the  restora- 
tion not  only  of  the  personal,  but  of  the  social  life ;  the  creation  not  only  of  the 
man  of  God,  but  of  the  city  of  God  ;  and  it  presents  the  society  or  city  not  as 
a  mere  name  for  the  congregation  of  individuals,  but  as  having  a  being  and  life 
of  its  own,  in  which  the  Lord  finds  his  satisfaction  and  man  his  perfection. 
The  'Jerusalem  which  is  above'  is,  in  relation  to  the  Lord,  'the  bride,  the 
Lamb's  wife;1  (Rev.  xxi,  9 ;)  and  in  relation  to  man,  it  is  'the  mother  of  us  all1 
Gal.  iv,  36.  In  its  appearance  the  revealed  course  of  redemption  culminates, 
and  the  history  of  man  is  closed ;  and  thus  the  last  chapters  of  the  Bible  declare 
the  unity  of  the  whole  book  by  completing  the  design  which  has  been  developed 
fn  its  pages  and  disclosing  the  result  to  which  all  preceding  steps  have  tended. 
Take  from  the  Bible  the  final  vision  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  what  will 
tave  been  lost?  Not  merely  a  single  passage,  a  sublime  description,  an  impor- 
tant revelation,  but  a  conclusion  by  which  all  that  went  before  is  interpreted 
and  justified.  We  shall  have  an  unfinished  plan,  in  which  human  capacities 
have  not  found  their  full  realization,  or  divine  preparation  their  adequate  result. 
But  as  it  is,  neither  of  these  deficiencies  exists,  The  great  consummation  is 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED.  203 

not,  be  the  order  of  events.  This  millennial  reign  may  come 
before  or  after  Christ's  advent.  The  former  is  irjtual  and 
Lhe  widely-received  spiritual  view  of  the  prophe- 
cies ,  the  latter  the  view  of  Millenarians,  many  of  whom  do 
not,  however,  attempt  to  designate  the  period  when  Christ 
will  make  his  appearance. 

But  the  study  of  prophecy  is  profitable,  although  we  may 
not  be  able  to  read  it  as  we  would  history.     It  is     prophecy  a 

profitable 

given,  the  most  of  it,  in  the  sublirnest  strains  of      8tudy- 
poetry  ever  written,  and  is  to  be  interpreted  according  to 
the  rules  already  laid  down  for  this  style  of  composition. 
What  higher  or  more  spiritual  or  practical  conception  of  the 
glory  and  holiness  of  Almighty  God  can  be  found  than  that 

there,  and  we  are  instructed  to  observe  that  from  the  first  the  desires  of  men 
and  the  preparations  of  God  have  been  alike  directed  toward  it.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sacred  story  the  father  of  the  faithful  comes  forth  into  view,  fol- 
lowed by  those  who  are  heirs  with  him  of  the  same  promise ;  and  they  separate 
themselves  to  the  life  of  strangers,  because  they  are  'looking  for  a  city  which 
hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker  is  God.'  In  due  time  solid  pledges 
of  the  divine  purpose  follow.  We  behold  a  peculiar  people,  a  divinely -framed 
polity,  a  holy  city,  a  house  of  God.  It  is  a  wonderful  spectacle,  this  system  of 
earthly  types,  thus  consecrated  and  glorified  by  miraculous  interventions  and 
inspired  panegyrics.  Do  we  look  on  the  fulfillment  of  patriarchal  hopes  or  on 
the  types  of  their  fulfillment?  on  the  final  form  of  human  society  or  on  the 
figures  of  the  true  ?  The  answer  was  given  by  prophets  and  psalmists,  and  then 
by  the  word  of  the  Gospel,  finally  by  the  hand  of  God,  which  swept  the  whole 
system  from  the  earth.  It  was  gone  when  the  words  of  the  text  were  written, 
and  when  the  closing  scene  of  the  Bible  presented  the  New  Jerusalem,  not  as 
the  restoration,  but  as  the  antitype  of  the  old.  This  vision  teaches  us  that  the 
drama  of  the  world  must  be  finished,  and  its  dispensation  closed,  that  the  Lord 
must  have  come,  the  dead  have  been  raised,  the  judgment  have  sat,  the  heaven 
and  earth  which  are  now  have  passed  away,  and  the  new  creation  have  appeared, 
before  the  chosen  people  shall  see  the  city  of  their  habitation/1 — Progress  of 
Doctrine  in  the  New  Testament,  page  219. 


204  THE  WORD    OF  GOD   OPENED. 

presented  by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  when  in  the  commencement 
of  his  prophetic  mission,  "In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah 
died,"  he  had  that  sublime  vision  in  the  temple.30  Before 
Ms  wondering  gaze  "  the  vail  of  the  temple  was  withdrawn 
and  the  holy  of  holies  discovered  to  the  prophet's  eyes,  and 
he  saw  the  Lord  sitting  as  a  king  upon  his  throne  actually 
governing  and  judging.  His  train,  the  symbol  of  dignity 
and  glory,  filled  the  holy  place ;  while  around  him  hovered 
the  attendant  seraphim,  spirits  of  purity,  zeal,  and  love, 
chanting  in  alternate  choirs  the  holiness  of  their  Lord ;  the 
threshold  vibrated  with  the  sound,  and  the  l  white  cloud '  of 
the  divine  Presence,  as  if  descending  to  mingle  itself  with 
the  ascending  incense  of  prayer,  filled  the  house.  The  eter- 
nal archetypes  of  the  Hebrew's  symbolic  worship  were  re- 
vealed to  Isaiah ;  and,  as  the  center  of  them  all,  his  eyes  saw 
the  King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  of  whom  the  actual  rulers  from 
David  to  Uzziah  had  been  but  the  temporary  and  subordinate 
viceroys.  In  that  Presence  even  the  spirits  of  the  fire  which 
consumes  all  impurities,  while  none  can  mix  with  it,  cover  their 
faces  and  their  feet,  conscious  that  they  are  not  pure  in  God's 
sight,  but  justly  chargeable  with  imperfection;  and  much 
more  does  Isaiah  shrink  from  the  aspiring  thoughts  he  had 
hitherto  entertained  of  his  fitness  to  be  the  preacher  of  that 
God  to  his  countrymen — he,  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  sharing 
the  uncleanness  of  the  people  among  whom  he  dwells.  In 
utter  self-abasement  he  realizes  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of 
Bin,  and  the  utter  separation  it  makes  between  man  and  the 
holy  God."  81 

10  Isaiah  vi  «  Sir  Edward  Strachey's  Hebrew  Polities,  page  79. 


THE  WOKD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  205 

Prophecy  is  really  a  grand  epic,  with  many  acts  and  a 
variety  of  scenes,  but  with  a  divine  unity.  Imagination  can 
find  in  no  human  work  so  fine  a  field  for  its  highest  and 
purest  conceptions.  Christ  is  the  great  central  personage  in 
the  extended  poem,  written  by  different  hands,  but  always 
preserving  the  divine  unities.  His  kingdom  in  all  its  for- 
tunes, adverse  and  prosperous,  is  set  forth.  His  own  mar- 
velous history  from  the  manger  to  the  cross,  his  providential 
government,  and  his  final  universal  triumph  and  coronation 
in  his  own  New  Jerusalem,  where  his  happy  followers  "  need 
no  candle,  neither  light  of  the  sun,  for  the  Lord  God  giveth 
them  light,"  "and  there  shall  be  no  night  there,"  are  pre- 
sented throughout  the  long  poem,  commencing  in  Eden  and 
ending  in  the  Apocalypse. 

Dr.  Schaff  remarks  of  the  Book  of  Revelation  that  it  sur- 
passes all  the  other  prophetic  writings  in  harmony,  elevation, 
fullness,  unity  of  view,  progress  of  action,  majesty  of  style, 
and,  above  all,  in  the  direct  relation  of  all  parts  of  the  pic- 
ture to  the  central  figure  of  the  crucified  and  now  glorified 
Christ,  who  rules  the  whole  history  of  the  world  and  the 
Church,  and  is  alpha  and  omega,  the  beginning  and  the  end. 
He  goes  on  to  say  that  "  in  a  succession  of  visions  and  mys- 
terious allegories  it  unfolds  before  the  reader  the  Dr.  Schaff  up- 
on the  Reve- 

great  epochs  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  to  lation. 
the  close  of  its  earthly  development.  Its  burden  is  the  com- 
forting truth  that  the  Lord  comes,  the  Lord  fights,  the  Lord 
conquers  and  leads  his  Church  through  tribulation  and  per- 
secution to  certain  victory  and  eternal  glory."  He  also 
remarks  that  the  value  of  the  book  is  quite  distinct  from  any 


206  THE   WOKD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

human  exposition  of  its  prophecies ;  that  it  was  n*  c  designed 
to  gratify  idle  curiosity  concerning  the  future,  but  for  a 
practical,  religious  end.  "  Prophecy,"  he  says,  "  ir.  the  nature 
of  the  case,  remains  more  or  less  obscure  until  it  is  fulfilled. 
And  as  the  Old  Testament  became  clear  only  in  the  New,  so 
the  Revelation  of  John  can  be  perfectly  understood  only  in 
the  triumphant  and  glorified  Church.  Still  it  bas  been  a 
book  of  consolation  and  hope  to  the  Church  militant  in  every 
age,  especially  amid  her  great  persecutions  and  struggles; 
and  it  will  remain  so  till  the  Lord  come  again  in  glory,  and 
the  New  Jerusalem  come  down  from  heaven  as  a  bride 
adorned  for  her  husband.  He  who  cannot  lie  assures  his 
people,  '  Lo,  I  come  quickly.  Amen.'  And  his  people  answei 
with  the  holy  longing  of  a  bride  for  her  spouse,  '  Yea ;  come, 
Lord  Jesus  I'  " 82 

•«  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  vol.  i,  p.  108. 


THE  WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  207 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE   BIBLE   IN   THE    WORLD'S    LITERATURE. 

,inHE  Christian  world  is  presenting  an  anomalous  spectacle 
-*•  at  the  present  hour.  There  never  was  a  period  when 
her  sacred  volume,  embodying  the  world's  faith  and  salva- 
tion, had  so  wide  a  distribution,  or  was  exer-  Bible  never 

before       so 

cising  so  mighty  an  influence  upon  the  world's  tributed?18" 
civilization  and  progress.  Nations,  both  Christian  and  un- 
christian, that  heretofore  have  forbidden  the  introduction  of 
the  Bible,  have  ceased  their  opposition,  and  the  leaves  from 
the  tree  of  life  for  the  healing  of  the  nations  are  falling  upon 
every  land.  In  more  than  two  hundred  different  languages 
the  peoples  of  the  earth  are  permitted  to  read  the  word  of  God 
uin  their  own  tongue,  in  which  they  were  born."  By  a 
divine  conviction  as  to  its  authority  and  power,  which  unites 
nearly  all  the  branches  of  the  visible  Church  in  wonderful 
harmony  of  sentiment  and  charity,  the  great  societies  of 
England  and  America  are  enabled  to  keep  their  groaning 
presses  constantly  in  motion  in  the  multiplication  of  editions 
of  this  marvelous  book. 

While  all  this  is  manifest,  at  the  same  moment  we  behold 
one  of  the  fiercest,  most  systematic,  and  bitter 

Bitter  attack 

attacks   upon  the   Christian   Scriptures   in  the     upon  ll' 
three    leading    modern    tongues  —  English,    German,    and 
French  —  carried    on  with   extraordinary  vigor,   and   with 


208  THE  WOKD   OF    GOD    OPENED. 

some  outward  manifestations  of  a  limited  success.     "There 

is,"  says  an  earnest  writer  in  the  British  Quarterly  Review, 
\ 
"coming  upon  the  Church  a  current  of  doubts  deeper  far 

and  darker  than  ever  swelled  against  her  before — a  current 
strong  in  learning,  crested  with  genius,  strenuous,  yet  calm 
in  progress.  It  seems  the  last  grand  trial  of  the  truth  of  our 
faith.  Against  the  battlements  of  Zion  a  motley  throng 
have  gathered  themselves  together.  Socinians,  Atheists, 
doubters,  open  foes  and  bewildered  friends  are  in  the  field, 
although  no  trumpet  has  openly  been  blown,  and  no  charge 
publicly  sounded.  There  are  the  old  desperadoes  of  infi- 
delity— the  lost  followers  of  Paine  and  Yoltaire ;  there  is  the 
stolid,  scanty,  and  sleepy  troop  of  the  followers  of  Owen ; 
there  follow  the  Communists  of  France,  a  fierce,  disorderly 
crew ;  the  commentators  of  Germany  come,  too,  with  pick- 
axes in  their  hands,  saying,  '  Kaze  it,  raze  it  to  the  founda- 
tions.' There  you  see  the  garde-mobile,  the  vicious  and  vain 
youths  of  Europe.  On  the  outskirts  of  the  fight  hangs, 
cloudy  and  uncertain,  a  small  but  select  band,  whose  wa- 
vering surge  is  surmounted  by  the  dark  and  lofty  crest  of 
Carlyle  and  Emerson.  '  Their  swords  are  a  thousand,'  their 
purposes  are  various.  In  this,  however,  all  agree — that  Chris- 
tianity and  the  Bible  ought  to  go  down  before  advancing 
civilization."  The  weight  of  this  mighty  movement,  how- 
ever, comes  from  within  rather  than  from  without  the 
nominal  Church.  Unbelief  at  this  hour  is  baptized,  and 
Foes  under  aims  her  powerful  blows  against  the  very  foun- 

the    garb    of 

friends.  dations  of  the  Christian  faith,  in  the  pretense  oi 

laboring  in  the  interests  of  Christianity  herself.     These  sub- 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  209 

tie  foes,  says  Tullidge,  have  skillfully  adapted  their  attacks 
to  the  refinement  and  intelligence  of  the  age,  and  with  a 
great  show  of  learning  and  science,  and  not  seldom  under 
the  garb  of  reverence  for  the  Bible  and  adherence  to  Chris- 
tianity, have  aimed  the  most  deadly  blows  against  the 
records  of  our  faith.  Colenso  is  a  bishop  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  Theodore  Parker  was  an  ordained  min- 
ister over  the  "  Twenty-eighth  Congregational  Church  of 
Boston;"  and  Dr.  Peabody  very  truly  remarks,  that  the 
author  of  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  if  he  had  lived  at  this  day, 
might  have  published  his  tracts  over  the  title  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Paine,  and  occupied  a  professedly  Christian  pulpit. 
The  double  pbject  of  the  present  crusade  (which  is,  after  all, 
but  one,  for  the  Bible  is  God's  word  written,  and  Christ  is 
the  word  made  flesh)  is  to  secure  a  religion  without  a  Bible, 
and  a  Gospel  without  a  Christ.  Rev.  Mr.  Frothingham  says 
he  "  reads  the  Bible  as  any  other  book,  criticises  it,  judges  it, 
but  expects  no  superhuman  wisdom  from  it,  and  Ob-ect  of  at_ 
will  not  call  it  the  word  of  God,  or  the  book  in  chCrist°n  and 

the   word    of 

which  the  words  of  God  are  especially  written."     God- 
Another  of  the  same  school,  in  their  organ,  the  "  Radical," 
blasphemously  remarks,  "  It  is  time  to  let  Jesus  rest.     Jesus 
is  made  a  stumbling-block  to  the  generation."     "He  does 
not  wish  to   hear  any  more  about  him."     It  is  the  same 
condition  of  things  now  as  in  apostolic  times :   to  the  un- 
believer Christ  is  still  a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  infidel 
foolishness. 
It   is  affirmed  with  some   appearance  of  truth,   by  the 

Westminster  Review,  that  the  great  body  of  the   "mental 
14 


210  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

food  of  the  day  —  science,  history,  morals,  poetry,  fiction, 
and  essay — is  prepared  by  men  who  have  long  ceased  to 
believe." 

The  divine  authority  of  revelation,  the  authenticity  and 
genuineness  of  the  various  books  composing  it,  form  the 
main  object  of  attack.  A  German  writer  has  aptly  re- 
marked :  "  One  period  has  fought  for  Christ's  sepulcher, 
another  for  his  body  and  blood,  the  present  period  contends 
The  era  of  the  for  his  word."  And  this  is,  indeed,  the  great 

contest      for 

the  word.  question  of  the  hour.  The  author  of  Liber  Li- 
brorum  closes  his  volume  with  the  forcible  remark,  "  The 
truth  or  falsehood  of  the  Bible,  its  worth,  or  its  worthless- 
ness,  is  the  great  question  of  the  day.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
affirm  that  the  life  or  death  of  modern  society  hangs  upon 
the  issue." 

We  have  not  a  moment's  hesitation  or  anxiety  as  to  the 
result.  The  world  has  not  been  redeemed  to  be  thrown 
away.  Too  marked  a  Providence  has  guarded  the  Holy 
Scriptures  in  darker  hours  than  the  present  to  yield  them 
now  to  unholy  hands.  "  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail " 
against  them.  "  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,"  but 
Christ's  "  words  shall  not  pass  away."  There  has  not  been  a 
No  occasion  generation  since  these  holy  writings  have  assumed 

to  be  anxious 

lor  the  result,  the  form  of  a  distinct  and  completed  revelation  in 
which  they  have  not  been  fiercely  attacked,  but  their  foes 
have  been  shattered  like  the  surges  of  the  sea  beating  against 
a  mighty  reef,  while  they  have  remained  unmoved  as  the 
"  Rock  of  Ages."  "  The  waves  of  the  sea  are  mighty,  and 
rage  terribly ;  but  the  Lord  who  sitteth  on  high  is  mightier." 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  211 

Tt  is  an  encouraging  fact,  that  while  the  foes  of  the  Bible  arc 
united  like  Herod  and  Pilate  in  their  enmity  toward  the 
word  of  God,  they  are  hopelessly  divided  in  the  weapons 
they  use  to  accomplish  their  object.  In  nothing  is  the 
weakness  of  the  argument  against  the  Bible  more  manifestly 
seen  than  in  the  lack  of  agreement  among  its  foes.  The 
French  school  denounces  the  German,  and  the  English  both 
the  others ;  while  different  writers  in  the  various  nations 
utterly  disagree  among  themselves,  and  strenuously  affirm 
the  folly  of  all  theories  save  their  own. 

But  the  Bible  has  gained,  as  it  always  must,  from  these 
attacks.     "  They  that  be  with  us  are  more  than     Bible  gained 

from       these 

they  that  be  with  them ;"  and  "  if  God  be  for  attacks, 
us,  who  can  be  against  us  ? "  If  Germany  has  produced  a 
Strauss,  a  Bruno,  a  Bauer,  an  Eichhorn,  a  Paulus,  and  a 
Schenkel,  she  has  also  given  for  the  defense  of  God's  word 
a  Tholuck,  a  Hengstenberg,  a  Keander,  an  Olshausen,  a  Stier, 
a  Lange,  a  Ritter,  and  hundreds  of  others  less  prominent,  but 
constantly  throwing  their  sanctified  literature  as  a  healthful 
leaven  into  the  intellectual  and  religious  life  of  the  continent. 
If  Renan  has  turned  the  Gospel  story  into  a  romance,  and 
made  the  principal  actor  a  weak  enthusiast  and  deceiver, 
Guizot  and  a  Pressens6  and  others  have  immediately  prof- 
fered to  France  more  than  an  effectual  antidote.  The  tracts 
and  essays  of  too  liberal  Christians  in  England,  the  irreverent 
writings  of  Theodore  Parker,  the  sad  oracles  of  the  authoress 
of  "  Broken  Lights,"  the  raw  mathematics  of  Colenso,  have 
awakened  into  life  the  most  vigorous  and  brilliant  pens  of 
the  age:  Westcott,  Ellicott,  Lee,  Rogers,  Buchanan,  Isaac 


212  THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Taylor,  and  Bayne;  the  preachers  of  the  successive  Boyle  and 
Bampton  University  Lectures,  Alford,  M'Cosh,  Fisher,  and  the 
unannounced  authors  of  Ecce  Deus,  Ecce  Homo,  Liber  Li- 
brorum,  et  id  omne  genus,  whose  names  one  cannot  number. 
It  will  be  understood,  of. course,  in  presenting  this  list  of 
names,  that  we  do  not  indorse  or  accept  all  the  lines  of 
defense  chosen  by  the  writers  which  we  have  enumerated, 
particularly  in  the  case  of  the  anonymous  authors,  but  men- 
tion them  as  gallantly  accepting  the  challenge  thrown  down 
by  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  Scriptures. 

Indeed,  one  of  the  most  striking  evidences  of  the  divine 
This  prodigious  origin  and  power  of  the  Bible  is  the  prodigious 
divide1  origin  !ts  literature  which  it  has  gathered  around  itself. 
Coming  for  the  most  part,  as  its  different  books  have,  from 
the  pens  of  unlearned  men,  without  the  training  of  the 
schools,  it  has  gained  the  most  amazing  hold  upon  the 
human  intellect  and  heart,  and  set  in  motion,  in  all  ages,  the 
most  powerful  and  polished  minds  in  explanation,  illustra- 
tion, and  defense  of  its  truths  and  revelations.  How  true  are 
those  expressive  words  of  the  apostle  Paul,  "  The  word  of 
God  is  quick  and  powerful ;"  that  is,  it  is  quickening,  life- 
giving,  inspiring!  What  an  immense  proportion  of  the 
literature  of  the  world  would  leave  its  libraries  if  all  growing 
directly  out  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  should  be  removed. 
How  has  it  quickened  the  human  mind  in  the  whole  field 
of  the  natural  sciences  and  of  philosophy!  To  defend  or 
attack  the  Scriptures  what  an  interest  has  been  taken  in  the 
study  of  astronomy  1  What  an  inspiration  the  friends  and 
foes  of  the  Bible  have  felt  in  the  study  of  geology,  from  its 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED.  213 

apparent  relation  to  the  early  chapters  of  Genesis.  The 
secrets  of  chemistry  have  been  searched  in  the  hope  of  pro- 
ducing life  without  seed,  and  thus  impugning  the  records  of 
Moses.  Every  theory  of  mental  philosophy  is  at  once  drawn 
out  into  line  for  the  defense  or  overthrow  of  the  doctrines  of 
Scripture.  Philology,  the  origin  and  antiquity  of  the  race, 
history  and  geography,  numismatics,  in  short,  the  whole 
circle  traversed  by  human  thought  and  investigation,  have 
been  quickened  into  life  by  the  words  of  Him  of  whom  it 
was  said,  "  In  him  was  life ;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of 
men." 

No  book  of  human  authorship  could  bear  up  such  a  litera- 
ture. The  only  other  volume  that  may  be  said  to  have  a 
literature  of  its  own,  which  stands  at  the  head  of  human 
productions  for  the  universality  and  power  of  its  influence, 
only  serves  to  show  more  significantly  the  superhuman 
vitality  of  the  Bible.  Who  will  think  for  a  its  influence 

compared  with 

moment  of  comparing  the  influence  of  Shaks-  ShaSspeat*. 
peare  with  that  of  the  Bible  ?  But  what  is  the  secret  of  the 
power  of  this  writer,  and  whence  did  he  derive  it?  An 
English  clergyman,  Rev.  T.  R.  Eaton,  has  written  a  book 
entitled  "  Shakspeare  and  the  Bible,"  in  which  he  seeks  to 
show  how  much  the  immortal  bard  was  indebted  to  the 
Scriptures  for  his  illustrations,  rhythms,  and  modes  of  ex- 
pression. The  author  affirms  that  Shakspeare  went  first  to 
the  word  and  then  to  the  works  of  God.  "  In  shaping  the 
truths  derived  from  these  sources,"  says  an  intelligent  phy- 
sician, "  he  obeyed  the  instinct  implanted  by  Him  who  had 
formed  him  Shakspeare.  Hence  his  power  of  inspiring  us 


THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

with  sublime  affection  for  that  which  is  properly  good,  and 
of  chilling  us  with  horror  by  his  fearful  delineations  of  evil. 
Shakspeare  perpetually  reminds  us  of  the  Bible  by  an  eleva- 
tion of  thought  and  simplicity  of  diction  which  are  not  to  be 
found  elsewhere." l  Rev.  Mr.  Eaton  points  out  hundreds  of 
quotations,  allusions,  and  parallelisms  in  his  works,  showing 
Shakspeare's  familiarity  with  Scripture,  his  fondness  for  it, 
and  the  almost  unconscious  recurrence  of  it  to  his  mind. 

Few  short  poems  have  impressed  thoughtful  men  more 

than  the  "Elegy  in  a  Country  Church-yard,"  by  Gray,  the 

poet.     It  has  been  translated  into  a  number  of  languages. 

Dr.  Johnson  read  it  with  pleasure,  and  Mr.  Webster  had  his 

son  read  it  to  him  upon  his  death-bed.      We 

Gray's  Elegy. 

are  pleased  to  call  to  mind  the  fact  that  the 
young  and  cultivated  General  Wolfe,  while  sailing  down  the 
St.  Lawrence  on  the  eve  of  his  great  victory  upon  the  Heights 
of  Abraham,  recited  the  verses  of  this  poem  aloud,  and  said 
at  their  close,  "  Now,  gentlemen,  I  would  prefer  being  the 
author  of  that  poem  to  the  glory  of  beating  the  French  to- 
morrow 1"  Gray  was  a  fine  scholar,  a  graduate  of  Cambridge, 
England,  was  cultivated  by  travel  and  constant  study  after 
he  left  the  University,  and  yet  it  was  eight  years  from  the 
time  he  commenced  this  poem  before  he  finished  it  and 
allowed  it,  under  the  most  searching  revision,  to  be  put  in 
print.  But  now  let  us  turn  to  only  one  of  the  many  psalms 
unequaled  in  beauty.  Take,  for  instance,  the  twenty-third,  a 
psalm  of  David.  It  was  evidently  written  at  a  sitting.  It  is 
the  production  of  a  man  brought  up  among  the  flocks  and 

i  C.  C.  Bombangh,  A.M.,  M.D. 


THE  WORD   OF  GOD    OPENED.  215 

conversant  with  the  humblest  society.  He  owed  little  to 
human  training,  and  had  no  classical  models  upon  which 
he  might  form  his  style,  or  from  which  he  might  receive 
his  inspiration.  "  This  ode,"  says  Isaac  Taylor,  "  is  not 
to  be  matched  in  the  circuit  of  all  literature.  In  its  way 
down  through  three  thousand  years  or  more  this  psalm 
has  penetrated  to  the  depths  of  millions  of  hearts ;  it  has 
gladdened  homes  of  destitution  and  discomfort;  it  has 
whispered  hope  and  joy  amid  tears  to  the  utterly  solitary 
and  forsaken,  whose  only  refuge  was  in  heaven.  Beyond  all 
range  of  probable  calculation  have  these  dozen 

Twenty -third 

lines  imparted  a  power  of  endurance  under  suffer-  P8*1™- 
ing,  and  strength  in  feebleness,  and  have  kept  alive  the 
flickering  flame  of  religious  feeling  in  hearts  that  were  nigh 
to  despair.  The  divine  element  herein  embodied  has  given 
proof,  millions  of  times  repeated,  of  its  reality  and  of  its 
efficacy  as  &  formula  of  tranquil  trust  in  God,  and  of  a  grate- 
ful sense  of  his  goodness,  which  all  who  do  trust  in  him  may 
use  for  themselves,  and  use  it  until  it  has  become  assimilated 
to  their  own  habitual  feelings.  Thus  it  is  that  throughout  all 
time  past,  and  all  time  to  come,  this  psalm  has  possessed,  and 
will  possess,  a  life-given  virtue  toward  those  who  receive  it,  and 
whose  own  path  in  life  is  such  as  life's  path  most  often  is." 

The  renowned  philologian  Henry  Stephanus,  who  wrote  an 
exposition  of  the  Psalms  in  1562,  remarks  "  that  in  the  whole 
compass  of  poetry  there  is  nothing  more  poetical. 

Henry  Ste- 

more  musical,  more  thrilling,  and  in  some  pas-     Phanus- 
sages   more   full   of  lofty  inspiration   than  the   psalms   of 
David."     The  great  German  historian,  John  von  Mueller, 


216  THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED. 

writes  in  a  letter  to  his  brother :  "  My  most  delightful  houi 

every  day  is  furnished  by  David.    There  is  nothing  in  Greece, 

nothing  in  Rome,  nothing  in  all  the  West  like 

John     Von 

David,  who  selected  the  God  of  Israel  to  sing 
him  in  higher  strains  than  ever  praised  the  gods  of  the 
Gentiles.  His  songs  come  from  the  spirit,  they  sound  to  the 
depths  of  the  heart,  and  never  in  all  my  life  have  I  so  seen 
God  before  my  eyes."  Alexander  von  Humbol(Jt,  who  was  a 
stranger  to  the  Christian  faith  in  the  invisible  world  and  to 

the  inward  experiences  of  the  Gospel,  in  his  great 

Humboldt. 

work  entitled  "  Cosmos,"  refers  to  the  remarkably 
truthful  representations  of  nature  in  Hebrew  poetry.  He 
notices  especially  the  one  hundred  and  fourth  psalm  as 
presenting  "in  itself  a  picture  of  the  whole  world."  He 
speaks  of  the  book  of  Job  as  being  "  as  graphic  in  its  repre- 
sentations of  particular  phenomena  as  it  is  artistic  in  the  plan 
of  the  whole  didactic  composition,"  and  says  of  the  book  of 
Ruth  that  it  is  "  a  most  artless  and  inexpressibly  charming 
picture  of  nature."  Goethe  says  of  this  same  book  that  it  is 
"  the  loveliest  thing  in  the  shape  of  an  epic  or  an 
idyl  which  has  come  down  to  us ;"  and  of  the  whole 
volume  of  inspiration  he  truthfully  testifies,  "  the  Bible  be- 
comes more  beautiful  the  more  we  study  it."  a 

This  naturally  suggests  the  analogous  thought  of  the  per- 
its      strong     sonal  influence  which  the  Bible  has  exercised 

hold  upon  the 

j£ismmdwer"     over   tne   strongest  and  most   original   minds. 
How  affecting  the  tribute  paid  to  it  by  the  unbelieving 

3  Hagenbach's   German   nationalism,  page  73.     History  of  the  Apostolif 
Church,  page  166. 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  OPENED.       217 

Rousseau :  "  This  divine  book,"  he  says,  "  the  only  one  which 
is  indispensable  to  the  Christian,  need  only  be  read  with 
reflection  to  inspire  love  for  its  Author,  and  the  most  ardent 
cli  sire  to  ol  ey  its  precepts.  Never  did  virtue  speak  so  sweet 
a  language,  never  was  the  most  profound  wisdom  expressed 
with  so  much  energy  and  simplicity.  No  one  can  arise 
from  its  perusal  without  feeling  himself  better  than  he  was 
before." 

Coleridge,  in  the  remarkable  letters  which  he  wrote  upon 
the  Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  which  have  been  the  suggestion 
and  seed-thought  of  most  of  the  tracts  issued  by  the  Broad 
Church  party,  but  which  infinitely  transcend  them  in  solidity, 
dignity,  richness  of  thought  and  expression,  and,  above  all,  in 
humble  and  loving  reverence  for  the  volume  of  revelation, 
says.  "In  the  Bible  there  is  more  that  finds  me 

Coleridge's 

than  I  have  experienced  in  all  other  books  put 
together ;  the  words  of  the  Bible  find  me  at  greater  depths 
of  my  ~bemg  ;  and  whatever  finds  me  brings  with  it  an  irre- 
sistible evidence  of  its  having  proceeded  from  the  Holy 
Spirit."  At  the  close  of  one  of  his  letters  he  adds,  "  The 
fairest  flower  that  ever  clomb  up  a  cottage  window  is  not 
so  fair  a  sight  to  my  eyes  as  the  Bible  gleaming  through 
the  lower  panes.  Let  it  but  be  read,  as  by  such  men  it 
used  to  be  read,  when  they  came  to  it  as  to  a  ground 
covered  with  manna — even  the  bread  which  the  Lord  had 
given  his  people  to  eat  —  where  he  that  gathered  much 
had  nothing  over,  and  he  that  gathered  little  had  no 
lack.  They  gathered  every  man  according  to  his  eating. 
They  came  to  it  as  to  a  treasure-house  of  Scriptures,  each 


218  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

visitant  taking  what  was  precious,  and  leaving  as  precious 
for  others." 

How  affectiag  the  language  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  not  a  too 
ardent  friend  of  its  inspiration,  when  he  says,  "  David's  life 
and  history,  as  written  for  us  in  those  psalms  of  his,  I  con- 
sider to  be  the  truest  emblem  ever  given  of  a  man's  moral 
progress  and  warfare  here  below.  All  earnest  souls  will  ever 
discern  in  it  the  faithful  struggles  of  an  earnest  human  soul 
toward  what  is  good  and  best.  Struggle  often 

Carlyle's  Ian- 
baffled,  down   as   into   an   entire   wreck,   yet   a 

struggle  never  ended;  ever  wTith  tears,  repentance,  true,  un- 
conquerable purpose,  begun  anew."  Of  the  book  of  Job  he 
says,  "  Noble  book ;  all  men's  book.  It  is  our  first  oldest 
statement  of  the  never-ending  problem — man's  destiny,  and 
God's  ways  with  him  here  in  the  earth.  And  all  in  such  free, 
flowing  outlines ;  grand  in  its  sincerity,  in  its  simplicity,  in 
its  epic-melody,  and  repose  of  reconcilement.  So  true  every 
way,  true  eye-sight  and  vision  of  all  things,  material  things 
no  less  than  spiritual ;  the  horse — hast  thou  clothed  his  neck 
with  thunder  f  he  laughs  at  the  shaking  of  the  spear.  Such 
living  likenesses  were  never  since  drawn.  Sublime  sorrow, 
sublime  reconciliation ;  oldest  choral  melody  as  of  the  heart 
of  mankind !  so  soft  and  great ;  as  the  summer  midnight, 
as  the  world  with  its  seas  and  stars." 

"  To  all  who  take  up  the  oracles  of  God  with  integrity 
and  honesty,"   says  Bishop  Butler,  "  the  Bible 

Bishop  Butler. 

will  ever  possess  the  peculiarity  of  meeting 
every  want,  and  appeasing  every  difficulty.  In  its  pages 
every  longing  of  our  nature,  the  most  superficial  and  the 


THE   WORD    OF    GOD    OPENED.  219 

inost  profound,  will  find  satisfaction.  Here  provision  has 
been  made  alike  for  the  tender  susceptibility  of  the  child 
and  the  mature  intellect  of  manhood  ;  and  whatever  shadow 
our  imperfect  knowledge  may  allow  for  the  present  to  rest 
upon  certain  of  its  statements,  the  mourner  will  still  find 
solace  in  the  songs  of  Zion,  and  philosophy  still  drink 
wisdom  from  the  parables  of  Galilee.  It  is  true  that  all 
difficulties  may  not  have  been  removed  which  the  enemies 
of  Christianity  have  started ;  nevertheless,  the  marvelous 
success  with  which  most  of  them  have  already  been  met 
must  convince  any  fair  mind  that  such  as  still  remain  are 
not  insurmountable,  and  that  here,  if  anywhere,  it  befits  our 
weakness  '  to  be  thankful  and  to  wait.' " 

"  Read  the  Bible,"  says  Wilberforce,  the  statesman,  in  his 
dying  hour  to  a  friend ;  "let  no  religious  book 

Wilberforce. 

take  its  place.  Through  all  my  perplexities  and 
distresses  I  never  read  any  other  book,  and  I  never  knew  the 
want  of  any  other.  It  has  been  my  hourly  study ;  and  all 
my  knowledge  of  the  doctrines,  and  all  my  acquaintance 
with  the  experience  and  realities  of  religion,  have  been 
derived  from  the  Bible  only." 

"  If  any  thing  I  have  ever  said  or  written,"  said  Daniel 
Webster,  when  commended  on  a  memorable  oc- 

Daniel   Web- 

casion  for  his  eloquence,  "  deserves  the  feeblest 
encomiums  of  my  fellow-countrymen,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
declaring  that  for  their  partiality  I  am  indebted,  solely  in- 
debted, to  the  daily  and  attentive  perusal  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, the  source  of  all  true  poetry  and  eloquence,  as  well  as 
of  all  good  and  all  comfort." 


220  THE   WORD   OF   GOD   OPENED. 

"  Thy  creatures,"  said  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  "  have  been  iny 
books,   but  thy   Scriptures  much  more.       I  have 
sought  thee  in  courts,  fields,  and  gardens,  but  I 
have  found  thee  in  thy  temples." 

aLet  others,"   said  John  Milton,  "dread  and  shun  the 
Scriptures  for  their  darkness ;   I  shall  wish  I  may 
deserve  to  be  reckoned  among  those  who  admire 
and  dwell  upon  them  for  their  clearness." 

"  We  account,"  writes  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  "the  Scrip- 
tures of  God  to  be  the  most  sublime  philosophy." 
Thomas,  Lord  Erskine  writes,  "  My  firm  belief  in  the  holy 
Gospel  is  by  no  means  owing  to  the  prejudices 

Lord  Erskine. 

of  education,  but  it  arises  from  the  most  con- 
tinued reflections  of  my  riper  years  and  understanding.  It 
forms  at  this  moment  the  great  consolation  of  a  life  which, 
as  a  shadow,  must  pass  away." 

Says  M.  Guizot,  the  truly  great  and  venerable  French 
statesman,  in  his  "Meditations  upon  the  Essence 
of  Christianity,"-^  I  have  read  the  sacred  volumes 
over  and  over  again ;  I  have  perused  them  in  very  different 
dispositions  of  mind ;  at  one  time  studying  them  as  great 
historical  documents,  at  another  admiring  them  as  sublime 
works  of  poetry.  I  have  experienced  an  extraordinary  im- 
pression quite  different  from  either  curiosity  or  admiration, 
I  have  felt  myself  the  listener  of  a  language  other  than  that  of 
the  chronicler  or  the  poet,  and  under  the  influence  of  a  breath 
issuing  from  other  sources  than  human." 

The  quick-witted  but  not  over-scrupulous  Tal- 

Talleyrand. 

leyrand,  expressed  his  appreciation  01  the  irre- 


THE  WORD    OF  GOD    OPENED.  221 

sistible  hold  which  the  Christian  Gospel  has  upon  the  human 
mind,  when  consulted  by  one  of  the  five  directors  constitut- 
ing the  French  government  in  1797,  in  reference  to  suitable 
forms  of  worship  for  the  new  religious  system  which  they 
had  inaugurated,  and  called  Theophilanthropism,  (divine 
humanity,)  "  I  have  but  a  single  observation,"  said  Talley- 
rand, "  to  make  :  Jesus  Christ,  to  found  his  religion,  suffered 
himself  to  be  crucified,  and  he  rose  again.  You  should  try 
to  do  as  much."  Only  four  years  afterward  remarks  Guizot, 
"  Theophilanthropism  and  its  apostle,  the  dream  and  the 
dreamer,  had  disappeared  from  the  stage,  where  they  had 
been  powerless  in  influence,  barren  in  consequence." 3 

Time  would  fail  us  to  recite  the  voluntary  and  heartfelt 
testimonies  to  the  sustaining  and  inspiring  power  of  the 
Bible  which  have  come  from  the  noblest  minds  of  all  ages  in 
all  Christian  lands. 

The  Bible  has  indeed  in  it,  combined  in  the  highest  degree, 
what  Matthew  Arnold  quotes  from  Swift  as  the  two  noblest 
of  things,  sweetness  and  light. 

What  volume  of  human  origin  could  endure  the  ordeal  of 
constant  reading  and  study,  and  exhaust  a  life-time  in  its 
investigation,  supplying  until  the  last  increasing  stimulation 
and  comfort?  Thousands  of  commentators  and  critical 
scholars  have  devoted  their  intellectual  lives  to  the  study 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  have  ceased,  like  the  ven- 
erable Bede,  at  once  to  work  and  live ;  consecrating 
their  last  breath  to  the  translation  or  illustration  of  the 
Bible 

3  Meditations  on  the  Actual  State  of  Christianity. 


222  THE   WORD    OF   GOD    OPENED. 

Prof.  Calvin  Stowe,  in  his  very  interesting  volume  entitled 
"  The  Origin  and  History  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible,"  refers 
to  this  line  of  thought.  "  Let  us  bring,"  he  says,  "  this 
matter  to  the  test  of  fact  and  common  sense.  These  men 
say  the  Bible  is  no  more  inspired  than  the  writings  of  Homer 
and  Shakspeare,  and  other  great  men  whom  God  has  fitted 
to  be  the  instructors  of  mankind.  Well,  then,  let  us  try  and 
other  books  see.  Let  us  for  a  while  use  Homer  and  Shaks- 

tried    in    the 

fiwe.  °f  speare  instead  of  the  Bible,  say  night  and  mom- 

ing,  in  our  family  prayers.  When  we  meet  in  the  house  of 
God  for  his  worship ;  in  the  hour  of  sickness  and  calamity 
and  distress;  at  funerals,  when  all  our  earthly  hopes  are 
blighted,  and  we  lay  our  dearest  Mends  in  the  grave ;  let  us 
then,  instead  of  reading  the  Bible,  take  a  few  passages  from 
Homer  and  Shakspeare.  How  long  do  you  think  this  would 
last  before  we  should  be  glad  to  get  back  to  our  Bible 
again  ?" 

A  book  that  has  so  imbedded  itself  in  all  literature  and 
science ;  that  has  for  nearly  two  thousand  years  sustained  its 
claim  to  a  divine  origin ;  that  has  exercised  so  marvelous  an 
influence  over  human  society,  and  impressed  itself  so  power- 
A  book  thus  fu^y  uPon  the  strongest  thinkers  of  every  age, 

the e  world'*  has  little  to  fear  from  the  hasty  generalizations 
literature 

cannot  die.       of  moc|ern  science,  or  from  the  passionate  attacks 

of  a  superficial  criticism,  which  exposes  its  object  and  animus 
in  the  irreverent  and  reckless  style  in  which  it  has  clothed 
itself.  To  these  self-confident  modern  Gnostics,  who  demand 
the  reason  why  these  things  should  not  be  believed,  we  may 
answer  as  Henry  Moore  did  Southey  when  he  inquired  of  him, 


THE   WORD   OF   GOD    OPENED.  223 

uWhy  ain  not  I  qualified  to  write  a  biography  of  John 
Wesley?"  "Sir,  thou  hast  nothing  to  draw  with,  and  the 
well  is  deep." 

We  close  this  volume  with  the  well-known  lines  of  Walter 
Scott,  said  to  have  been  written  in  his  Bible : 

"Within  this  awful  volume  lies 
The  mystery  of  mysteries  ; 
O !  happiest  they  of  human  race, 
To  whom  our  God  has  given  grace 
To  hear,  to  read,  to  fear,  to  pray, 
To  lift  the  latch  and  force  the  way ; 
But  better  had  they  ne'er  been  born 
Who  read  to  doubt,  or  read  to  scorn. 


THE 


; 


V7 

/  sfa*~ 


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